Supreme Court rejects review petitions challenging ‘quota within quota’ order

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed review petitions challenging its decision that the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SC) is permissible to create separate quotas for the more disadvantaged within SC categories.
“Having reviewed the petitions, there is no error apparent on the face of the record. No case for review under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013 has been made out. The review petitions are, therefore, dismissed,” stated the order.
As this is a review order, the hearing and the order were delivered in chambers.
Jaishri Patil, one of the petitioners, argued that the Supreme Court’s interpretation in the Indra Sawhney case regarding the sub-classification of backward classes does not apply to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The petition contended that neither the state nor the central government has the power to classify or sub-classify Scheduled Castes, as this authority rests exclusively with the President and Parliament under Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution.
On August 1, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, by a 6:1 majority, held that states can identify the more disadvantaged among the Scheduled Caste categories and sub-classify them to provide separate quotas within the overall SC quota.
In its order, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra, and Satish Chandra Sharma voted in favour of subclassification of SC quotas, while Justice Bela Trivedi dissented.
The bench also overruled the 2005 judgment of the Supreme Court that had held that state governments had no power to create sub-categories of SCs for the purpose of reservation.