The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a Gauhati High Court order that had dismissed a petition seeking to quash a Mizoram Government notification. The controversial notification had arbitrarily sub-classified the Scheduled Tribes of the State, allegedly discriminating against non-Mizo Scheduled Tribes.

The High Court had previously rejected the petition on June 21, citing that a related legal question was pending before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. However, the three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud observed that the High Court’s dismissal solely based on the pending reference was not appropriate. As a result, the apex court ordered the petition to be reinstated in the files of the High Court.

At the heart of the matter was the Mizoram (Selection of Candidates for Higher Technical Courses) (Amendment) Rules, which came into effect in May 2021. The Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union, represented by senior advocate Aditya Sondhi and advocate Vikram Hegde, argued that the State notification reserved an overwhelming 93% of seats in higher technical education exclusively for permanent residents of Mizoram belonging to Category I, which primarily consisted of the Zo ethnic tribe or the majority Mizos.

In contrast, a mere 1% of seats were allocated for ‘children of other local permanent Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Non-Zo) residents of the State of Mizoram,’ who were placed in Category II.

The students’ union contended that this notification directly contravened the Supreme Court judgment in the E.V. Chinnaiah case, which had ruled that the sub-classification of Scheduled Tribes was impermissible. However, the High Court rejected their arguments, pointing out that the Chinnaiah judgment had been referred to a seven-judge Bench in 2020.

The Supreme Court, in its decision, upheld the petitioner’s submission that the High Court should not have dismissed the case based solely on the pending reference in the E.V. Chinnaiah judgment. Additionally, the Bench took note of the Mizoram Government’s assertion that it had already declared a provisional NEET 2023 merit list without any sub-classification of the Scheduled Tribes, and three candidates belonging to the Chakma community were part of this list.

The court granted the students’ union the liberty to approach the High Court for any future relief in this matter. In their original petition, the students’ union had argued that the allocation of reserved seats lacked proper consideration for their representation in the population, and the notification imposed additional requirements on candidates falling under Category II and III.