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