The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on November 21, 2023, to deliberate on the validity of reservations provided for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) communities in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. This decision comes in the wake of challenges posed to the Constitution(104th) Amendment Act 2019, which extended the political reservations for SC/STs by another decade.
The Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices AS Bopanna, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, will focus on the 104th Amendment’s legitimacy. However, the bench has clarified that it will not delve into the validity of previous extensions granted for SC/ST reservations through earlier amendments.
The primary issues framed for consideration are:
- Is the Constitution (104th Amendment) Act 2019 unconstitutional?
- Is the amendment to extend the period prescribed for the expiration of reservations under Article 334 constitutionally valid?
The bench further clarified,
“The validity of the 104th amendment shall be determined to the extent that it applies to the SCs and the STs since the reservations for Anglo Indians has come to an end at the expiration of 70 years from the commencement of the Constitution.”
Senior Advocate C Aryama Sundaram, representing the petitioners, raised concerns regarding the amendments potentially violating the Constitution’s basic structure. He questioned whether there was quantifiable data indicating a lack of representation that justified these amendments. Otherwise, he argued, the amendments might be tainted with
“manifest arbitrariness.”
CJI Chandrachud summarized Sundaram’s arguments, stating,
“You are saying reserving seats for one community deprives another community of the same and thus goes against the basic structure. That is your submission.”
For context, Article 334 of the Constitution originally stipulated that reservations for SC/STs and Anglo-Indians in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies would expire ten years post the Constitution’s commencement, i.e., in 1960. However, this provision underwent multiple amendments to extend the reservation period by ten-year increments. The recent 104th Amendment, effective from January 25, 2020, extended the time limit for SC and ST seats in legislative bodies by another decade, replacing the word “70 years” with “80 years.” Notably, this amendment did not extend the reservation period for Anglo Indians.
The case, initially titled “Ashok Kumar Jain v. UoI W.P. (C) No.546/2000,” has now been renamed as “In Re: Article 334 of the Constitution.”
