The Supreme Court Thursday held that its 2004 verdict holding that states do not have the power to further sub-classify the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for grant of quotas in jobs and admissions to educational institutions, needs to be revisited. A five-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said the 2004 verdict of a constitution bench in the E V Chinnaiah case needs to be reconsidered and, therefore, the matter be placed before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate direction.

The bench, also comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose, said in its view the 2004 verdict was not correctly decided and states can make laws to give preferential treatment by subclassifying caste within SC/STs. The bench referred the case filed by the Punjab government against the high court order before CJI Justice S A Bobde for setting up of a larger bench to revisit the earlier verdict.

The Supreme Court Thursday held that its 2004 verdict holding that states do not have the power to further sub-classify the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for grant of quotas in jobs and admissions to educational institutions, needs to be revisited. A five-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said the 2004 verdict of a constitution bench in the E V Chinnaiah case needs to be reconsidered and, therefore, the matter be placed before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate direction.

The bench, also comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose, said in its view the 2004 verdict was not correctly decided and states can make laws to give preferential treatment by subclassifying caste within SC/STs. The bench referred the case filed by the Punjab government against the high court order before CJI Justice S A Bobde for setting up of a larger bench to revisit the earlier verdict.