Those who benefited from reservations should make way for more backward persons, says Supreme Court

Those who benefited from caste-based reservation should make way for the more backward among them, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday, according to The Indian Express.

A seven-judge Constitution bench was hearing a case on whether state governments could sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The case stems from a Punjab government notification from 1975 that divided its 25% reservation for the Scheduled Castes at the time into two categories.

Justice Vikram Nath asked whether the rationale behind the sub-classification was that among a particular category, some sub-castes may now fare better and so, should now compete with the general category, Bar and Bench reported.

“Why should not be there an exclusion?” he asked. “...Let the remaining who are still backward within the backward, let them get the reservation. Once you achieve the concept of reservation, you should pull out of that reservation.”

Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh said that is the aim behind the sub-classification.

Justice BS Gavai also asked whether the children of civil service officers from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should continue availing reservation.

“What happens is a person from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe gets into IAS, IPS,” he said. “Once he is an IAS or IPS or IFS, his children no more suffer the disadvantages that the persons from the category who are...

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