The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs) are not a single group and that governments can create sub-categories within SC/ST. This allows them to give more benefits to those who have faced more discrimination, ensuring that the 15% reservation is better targeted to those who need it most.
The Supreme Court bench, including the Chief Justice and Justices B.R. Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M. Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra, and Satish C. Sharma, overturned the 2004 Chinnaiah case ruling that had previously opposed dividing Scheduled Castes into sub-categories.
Targeted Benefits
The judgment, by opening up scopes for sub-categorization of SCs, is trying to make sure that concentrated benefits go to the lot among them who have to bear the most intensified discrimination. This will bring about a better targeting of inequalities and help the most disadvantaged groups more.
Better Representation
States can now better collect and use data on the representation of different SC sub-groups in government jobs and educational institutions. This allows them to provide data-driven opportunities and allocate resources more equitably.
Re-drafting of Policies
The judgment is likely to impel the state governments to re-draft their policies and reservation practices in conformity with the new guidelines. This will perhaps require revisiting the reservation allocation methodology and other new measures in line with sub-classification.
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Legal Precedent
Overturning the judgment of the 2004 Chinnaiah case sets a new legal precedent, allowing greater flexibility in the management of reservations. This could influence future legal and policy decisions related to caste-based reservations.
Better Accessibility
The judgment is likely to extend facilities like government employment and educational opportunities, unavailable to too many of the SCs, especially the most oppressed and marginalized among them. In other words, it will make the system more just by taking cognizance of and accounting for relative disadvantage.
Potential Challenges
Logistically and administratively, setting up sub-classifications and gathering the required data will be a difficult task. The States have to find out mechanisms which can undertake the correct assessment of these sub-categories and manage them. This will be quite time-consuming and costly.
Social Impact
The judgment may have more social mobility for the most backward sections within SCs, with their overall socio-economic status likely to improve, leading to more social equity.
The seven-judge bench wrote six different opinions, with five agreeing that Scheduled Castes should be divided into sub-categories. This aims to give those who are most disadvantaged within SCs a better chance to benefit from the 15% reservation.
