Panjab was among first States to Sub-Categorize Scheduled Castes

A seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on 14 Feb reserved its judgment on the permissibility of sub-classification within Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribe reservations. The Court is examining whether its judgment in E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh & Others (2004) — where it ruled that the SCs form a homogenous class and that there cannot be any subdivision among them — needs a relook. The hearing has thrown a spotlight on Panjab, which has also moved the top court to reconsider its 2004 judgment. The AAP government is arguing that ‘it is no longer about advantaged, disadvantaged but about disadvantaged, more disadvantaged.’ According to the 2011 census, at 32%, Panjab has the largest proportion of SCs in its population. In 1975, during INC’s rule under Giani Zail Singh, the Panjab government issued a circular which reserved 50% of jobs within the 25% quota for SCs for members of the Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikh communities. This circular continued to function until 2006. In July that year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck it down in a judgment titled Dr Kishan Pal v. State of Punjab. Mazhabis and Valmikis protested, alleging that another SC community, the Ravidassias, were influencing the case. In September 2006, then Panjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, heading an INC government, brought a Bill in the Panjab Legislative Assembly  to ‘protect and safeguard the reservation rights of the Valmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs.’ This was called ‘The Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act, 2006’ and it was passed unanimously.