Will a Schedule Caste person availing of reservation cease to get the same benefit in the successor State upon reorganisation of the parent State, the Supreme Court examined the “peculiar question” on Tuesday.
The apex court said that such a question has cropped up before it for the first time and there are no case laws available as far as substance of the case is concerned and therefore it would like to examine the matter threadbare as the issue can happen anywhere.
It has sought the assistance of Attorney General K K Venugopal, who submitted that reservation in bifurcated states for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) would remain the same as the conditions of backwardness, which affected members of particular castes would be nearly identical for residents in the erstwhile unified state.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ajay Rastogi was faced with question while examining an appeal filed by Pankaj Kumar, an SC who has challenged the Jharkhand High Court''s order of February 24 last year.