THOMMEN, J.1
271. What is sought to be identified is not caste, religion and the like, but social and educational backwardness, generally manifested by disabilities such as illiteracy, humiliating isolation, poverty, physical and mental degeneration, incurable diseases, etc. Living in abject poverty and squalor, engaged in demeaning occupations to keep body and soul together, and bereft of sanitation, medical aid and other facilities, these unfortunate classes of citizens bearing the badges of historical discrimination and naked exploitation are generally traceable in the midst of the lowest of the low classes euphemistically described as Harijans and in fact treated as untouchables. To deny them the constitutional protection of reservation solely by reason of change of faith or religion is to endanger the very concept of secularism and the raison d’etre of reservation.
272. No class of citizens can be classified as backward solely by reason of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them. But any one or all of these factors mentioned in Article 15(1) or Article 16(2) can be taken into account along with other relevant factors in identifying classes of citizens who What is significant is that such identification should not be made solely with reference to are socially and educationally backward. the criteria specified in Article 15(1) or Article 16(2), but with reference to the social and educational backwardness of classes of citizens. Referring to the words “socially and educationally backward classes of citizens” appearing in Article 15(4), this Court stated in State of Uttar Pradesh v. Pradip Tandon, (1975) 2 SCR 761 at 767:
“The expression ‘classes of citizens’ indicates a homogeneous section of the people who are grouped together because of certain likeliness and common traits and who are identifiable by some common attributes. The homogeneity of the class of citizens is social and educational backwardness. Neither caste nor religion nor place of birth will be the uniform element of common attributes to make them a class of citizens”.
It may, however, be true that backwardness is associated specially with people of a particular religion or race or caste or place of birth or residence or any other category mentioned in Article 15(1) or Article 16(2). In that event, any one or more of such criteria, along with other relevant factors, may be taken into consideration to reach the conclusion as to social and educational backwardness. Hard and primitive living conditions in remote and inaccessible areas, where the inhabitants have neither the means of livelihood nor facilities for education, health service or other civic amenities, are some such relevant criteria. Janki Prasad Parimoo v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, (1973) 3 SCR 236, 259; State of Andhra Pradesh v. P. Sagar, 1968) 3 SCR 595, 600.
273. The city slum dwellers, the inhabitants of the pavements, afflicted and disfigured in many cases by diseases like leprosy, caught in the vicious grip of grinding penury, and making a meagre living by begging besides the towering mansions of affluence, transcend all barriers of religion, caste, race, etc. in their degradation, suffering and humiliation. They are the living monument of backwardness and a shameful reminder of our national indifference, a cruel betrayal of what the preamble to the Constitution proclaims. No matter what caste or religion they may claim, their present plight of animal like existence, living on crumbs picked from garbage cans or coins flung from moving cars – a common painful sight in our metropolis – entitles them to every kind of affirmative action to redeem themselves from the inequities of past and continuing discrimination. Rehabilitation and resettlement of these unfortunate victims of societal indifference and Governmental neglect and appropriate and urgent measures for State aided health care, education and special technical training for their porgeny with a view to their employment in public services are the primary responsibility of a welfare State. These are the classes of people specially chosen by the law for prompt and effective affirmative action, not by reason of their caste or religion, but solely by reason of their backwardness in tracing which any relevant criterion is a useful tool.
274. In identifying backwardness, caste, religion, residence etc. are of course relevant factors, but none of them is a dominant or much less an indispensable factor. What is of ultimate relevance is the social and educational backwardness of a class of citizens, whatever be their caste, religion” etc.
275. Identification of the backward classes for the purpose of reservation ‘must be with reference to their social and educational backwardness resulting from the continuing ill effects of prior discrimination or exploitation; and not solely with reference to any one or more of the prohibited criteria mentioned in Article 15(1) or Article 16(2), although any one or more of such criteria may have been the ultimate cause of such discrimination or exploitation and the resultant poverty and backwardness. As stated by this Court in R. Chitralekha v. State of Mysore, (1964) 6 SCR 368 at 388 :
“….the expression classes’ is not synonymous with castes ……. caste may have some relevance, but it cannot be either the sole or the dominant criterion for ascertaining the class to which he or they belong”.
276. What is sought to be identified for the purpose of Article 15(4) or Article 16(4) is a socially and educationally backward class of citizens. A class means ‘a homogeneous section of the people grouped together because of certain likeliness or common traits, and who are identifiable by some common attributes’.[1] . They must be a class of people held together by the common link of backwardness and consequential disabilities. What binds them together is their social and educational backwardness, and not any one of the prohibited factors like religion, race or caste. What chains them, what incapacitates them, what distinguishes them, what qualifies them for favoured treatment of the law is their backwardness : their badges of poverty, disease, misery, ignorance and humiliation. It is conceivable that the entire caste is a backward class. In that event, they form a class of people for the special protection of Articles 15(4) and 16(4), not by reason of their caste, which is merely incidental, but by reason of their social and educational backwardness which is identified to be the result of prior or continuing discrimination and its ill effects and which is comparable to that of the Scheduled Castes and, the Scheduled Tribes. It is also conceivable that a class of people may be identified as backward without regard to their caste, provided backwardness of the nature and degree mentioned above binds them as a class.[2]
277. Historically : backwardness has been the curse of people most of whom are characterised as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. These are not castes as such, but classes of people composed of castes, races or tribes or tribal communities or parts or groups thereof and classified as such as by means of presidential notifications owing to their extreme backwardness and other disadvantages (see Articles 341 and 342)[3]. There are many other persons falling outside these groups, but comparable to them in their backwardness.
278. Any identification made for the purpose of Article 15 or Article 16 solely with reference to caste or religion, and without regard to the real issue of backwardness, will be an impermissible classification resulting in invidious reverse discrimination. The fact that identification of backwardness may involve a reference to religion, race, caste, occupation, place of residence or the like in respect of classes of people does not mean that any one of these factors is the sole or the dominant or the indispensable criterion. Backwardness may be the result of a combination of two or more of these factors. Persons of a particular place or occupation may have been enslaved as bonded labourers, or otherwise held in serfdom and exploited and discriminated against, and may have over a period of time degenerated to such social and educational backwardness as to qualify for the special protection of the Constitution. No matter to what caste or community or religion they belonged or from what place they came, their present plight stemming from prior inequities and continuing over a period of time and thus placing them in a state of total helplessness qualifies them for the special protection of reservation.
279. Historically, backwardness, as stated above, has been most acute at the lowest levels of our society and it has been invariably identified with low castes and demeaning occupations. But if, as a matter of fact, classes of citizens of higher castes have suffered continuously by reason of discrimination or exploitation by persons having authority and power over them and have consequently been reduced to poverty, ignorance and isolation resulting in social and educational backwardness, whatever be the caste of the exploiters or of the victims, the constitutional protection has to be extended to such classes of victims. They must be helped out of their present plight resulting from prior or continuing discrimination or exploitation. Proof of their backwardness is not in their caste or religion, but in their poverty, ignorance and consequential disabilities.
280. It is generally a combination of factors such as low birth and demeaning occupation, or lack of any occupation, that has historically subjected classes of people to invidious discrimination and humiliating isolation and consequential poverty and social and educational backwardness. These are questions of fact which must be ascertained before the qualifying backwardness is identified. To disregard any one of these factors, particularly the most compelling reality of Indian life originating in low castes and demeaning occupations generally associated with them, such as that of scavenger, sweeper, fisherman, dhobi, barber and the like and resulting in abject poverty, is to ignore the relevant criteria in identifying backwardness warranting reservation. What is sought to be identified for the purpose of reservation is not caste or religion, but poverty and backwardness caused by historical discrimination and its continuing evil effects. Caste may be a guide in this search, just as occupation or residence may be a guide, but what is sought to be identified is none but backwardness stemming from historical discrimination. If caste is more often than not a guide in the search for backwardness and if the lowest of the low castes has for historical reasons become the indicium of backwardness of the kind attracting reservation, caste in the absence of any better guide is a factor to be taken into account along with other factors such as poverty, illiteracy, physical and mental disabilities and other diseases caused by malnutrition, unhygienic conditions and the like. What the Constitution prohibits is not caste or non-discriminatory and inoffensive customs and practices based on castes; or ameliorative measures to uplift the downtrodden poverty striken members of low castes, what it prohibits is exclusionary discrimination based solely on caste or any other criterion enumerated in Article 15(1) or Article 16(2). Any one or all of such criteria along with any other relevant criterion, such as poverty, illiteracy, disease, etc. may be legitimately used to identify backwardness for the purpose of reservation.
281. To contend that caste, and caste alone, is the criterion for identification of backwardness is to disregard the innumerable reasons for backwardness. At the same time, to ignore caste as a factor in identifying backwardness for the purpose of reservation is to shut one’s eyes to the realities and ignore the cause of injustice from which large sections of people in this country have for generations suffered and still suffer, namely, naked exploitation and discrimination by those in positions of power and affluence. The realities of life in India militate against total exclusion of consideration based on caste or total concentration on caste in identifying backwardness caused by past inequities.
282. The Constitution is neither caste-blind nor caste-prejudiced nor caste-over-charged, but fully alive to caste as one of the relevant criteria to be reckoned in the process of identification of backward classes of citizens. India is not a nation of castes but of people with roots in divergent castes. What the Constitution seeks to identify is not the backward caste, but the backward class of citizens who may in many cases be partly or in some cases predominantly or even solely identified with particular castes.[4]
283. The question is not whether the Constitution is caste-blind or caste-prejudiced; the question really is who are the backward classes of citizens intended to be protected by reservation under Article 15 or Article 16. If reservation is limited solely to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and other comparably backward classes of citizens, as it must be under the Constitution, then the Harijans, the Girijans, the Adivasis, the Dalits, and other like backward classes of citizens, once known as the “untouchables” or the “outcastes” or the “depressed classes” by reason of their “low” birth and “demeaning” occupation, or any other class of citizens afflicted by like degree of degeneration and deprivation caused by prior and continuing discrimination, exploitation, neglect, poverty disease, isolation, bondage and humiliation, whatever be their caste, religion or place of origin, will alone qualify for reservation. Call them a class or a caste or a race or a tribe or whatever nomenclature is appropriate, they are the only legitimately intended beneficiaries of reservation. Their roots of origin in the lowest of the low segments of society; their affiliation with what is traditionally regarded as demeaning occupations; their humiliating and inescapable segregation and chronic isolation from the rest of the population; their social and educational deprivation and helplessness; their abysmal poverty and degenerating backwardness; all this and more most humiliatingly branded them in the past as ‘outcastes” or “untouchables” or “depressed classes” or whatever other nomenclauture one might ascribe to describe them. It is their present plight of continuing poverty and backwardness stemming from identified historical discrimination, whatever be the religion or faith they presently profess, that the Constitution entitles them to the special protection of reservation. The fact that the search to identify backwardness for the purpose of reservation will invariably lead one to these so called outcastes or the lowest of the low castes or untouchables does not vitiate identification so long as what is sought to be identified is not caste but backwardness.
[1] Triloki Nath v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, (1969) 1 SCR 103, 105
[2] M. R. Balaji, (1963 Supp (1) SCR 439) (supra) at pp. 458, 474 ; Minor P. Rajendran v. State of Madras, (1968) 2 SCR 786; State of Andhra Pradesh v. P. Sagar, (1968) 3 SCR 595; A. Peeriakaruppan v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1971) 2 SCR 430; State of Andhra Pradesh v. U.S.V. Balram, (1972) 3 SCR 247, 280, 285; Triloki Nath v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, (1969) 1 SCR 103; State of Uttar Pradesh v. Pradip Tandon, (1975) 2 SCR 761; Kumari K. S. Jayasree v. State of Kerala, (1977) 1 SCR 194; Akhil Bharatiya Soshit Karanichari Sangh (Railway) v. Union of India, (1981) 2 SCR 185; R. Chitralekha v. State of Mysore, (1964) 6 SCR 368
[3] State of Kerala v. N. M. Thomas, (1976) 1 SCR 906, 932; Akhil Bharatiya Soshit Karmachari Sangh (Railway) v. Union of India(1981) 2 SCR 185, 234
[4] See Minor P. Rajendran v. State of Madras, (1968) 2 SCR 786, 790.
- This article is an excerpt from the judgment of Indira Sawhney v Union of India 1993 (1) SCT 448 ↩︎