New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Thursday its verdict on the legal question whether a state government is empowered to make a sub-classification of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes for grant of reservation in admissions and public jobs.
According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud is likely to deliver the judgment.
The top court on February 8 had reserved its order after hearing submissions from Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior advocate Kapil Sibal and others.
The states represented by senior advocates have sought review of the E V Chinnaiah judgment, which in 2004 had ruled that all SC communities which suffered ostracisation, discrimination and humiliation for centuries represented a homogeneous class, incapable of being sub-categorised.
The bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Mishra, heard 23 petitions, including the lead one filed by the Punjab government challenging the 2010 verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The top court heard a reference to revisit a five-judge Constitution bench judgment of 2004 in the case of E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh in which it was held that SCs and STs are homogenous groups and hence, states cannot further sub-classify them to grant quota inside quota for more deprived and weaker castes in these groups.
The Chinnaiah judgment had held that any sub-classification of the Scheduled Castes would violate Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
The 2004 verdict had stated that only Parliament, and not state legislatures, can exclude castes deemed to be SC from the Presidential List under Article 341 of the Constitution. PTI PKS KSS KSS
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