Existing quota benefits cannot be taken away if caste is later removed from SC/ST list: Gujarat HC

The Gujarat High Court has held that removing a community from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes list does not take away reservation benefits already secured by members of the social group.

A division bench of Justices NS Sanjay Gowda and JL Odedra, in a verdict on July 17, noted that as per Article 341 of the Constitution, Parliament has the power to include, modify or exclude a caste from the Scheduled Castes list. However, it held that such changes can only be prospective, and cannot be cited to deprive individuals of rights that have already been conferred upon them.

“The exclusion of a caste from the list of Scheduled Castes can only be prospective and the benefits that had accrued on a person who had been born into the caste when it was included in the list of Scheduled Castes would continue to adhere to him during his life time,” the bench held.

The court remarked that caste is “thrust upon a person” at the time of birth and continues till their death. “…As a consequence, any person who is born into a caste, which at that time was specified as a scheduled caste, will have to be considered as a person belonging to a Scheduled caste till his death,” it said.

However, the judges said that a person born into a caste after it was removed from the Scheduled Castes list would not be entitled to reservation benefits, even if the caste had been recognised as a Scheduled Caste earlier.

The case

The High Court was hearing a plea by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, challenging an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal restoring the promotion of its employee, Ranjit Vasantlal Makwana.

Makwana, who belongs to the Mochi community, had joined the organisation as a lower division clerk under the Scheduled Caste quota in 1995. Back then, the members of the Mochi community across Gujarat were recognised as Scheduled Castes under the Constitution Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders Amendment Act, 1976.

In 2002, Parliament amended the Scheduled Castes list. After the amendment, Scheduled Caste status for the Mochi community was restricted to persons from Dang district and Umbergaon taluka of Valsad district.

In 2003, Makwana was promoted to the post of enforcement officer/accounts officer.

Nearly nine years later, in 2012, the organisation reverted him to his original post, arguing that he was no longer entitled to reservation benefits after the 2002 amendment.

Makwana challenged the decision before the Central Administrative Tribunal. The tribunal ruled in his favour and restored his promotion, holding that the vacancy against which he had been promoted had arisen before the 2002 amendment.

The organisation then moved the Gujarat High Court against the tribunal’s order.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.