SC to adjudicate upon quota to SC/STs in legislative bodies

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to adjudicate upon the validity of the Constitution's 104th Amendment Act 2019, which extended the reservations for SC/STs in legislative bodies for another 10 years.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud clarified that it will not go into the validity of the previous extensions given for SC/ST reservations through earlier amendments.

The court framed issues like whether the Constitution (104th Amendment) Act 2019 is unconstitutional and whether the exercise of constituent powers of amendment to extend the period prescribed for the expiration of period of reservations under Article 334 is constitutionally valid.

"The validity of the 104th amendment shall be determined to the extent that it applies to the SCs and the STs since the reservations for Anglo Indians has come to an end at the expiration of 70 years from the commencement of the Constitution," the bench said.

The court fixed the matter for consideration from November 21.

The issue arose out of Article 334 of the Constitution which provided that reservations for SC/STs and Anglo-Indians in Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies would cease to have effect after 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution. However, the time period was extended by repeated amendments.