Reservation in Public Employment

In one line

Article 16(4) permits reservation for a backward class that is not adequately represented, and everything difficult about it comes from four words: backward, class, adequately, represented.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: article 16(4) provides that nothing in article 16 shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State. Article 335 provides that the claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts. In Indra Sawhney v. Union of India a Bench of nine judges held that article 16(4) is not an exception to article 16(1) but an instance of the classification inherent in it, that a caste can be a class, that the creamy layer must be excluded, that reservation should not exceed fifty per cent, and that article 16(4) does not permit reservation in promotion.

The four conditions in the clause

Read article 16(4) as a checklist and each condition becomes a separate question.

"Any backward class of citizens". Not "socially and educationally backward", as in article 15(4). Indra Sawhney held that the expression in article 16(4) is wider, with the accent on social backwardness, though social, educational and economic backwardness are closely intertwined in the Indian context.

"Which, in the opinion of the State". The identification is for the State, and the adequacy of representation is a matter within its subjective satisfaction. Judicial scrutiny is the same as for other matters of subjective satisfaction: the court examines whether there was material, not whether it would have reached the same view.

"Is not adequately represented". The trigger is under-representation in the services, not backwardness in the abstract. A class that is adequately represented cannot be reserved for, whatever its social position, because the object of the clause would not be served.

"In the services under the State". The field is public employment. Once the employer ceases to be the State, the clause has nothing to operate on, which is MU's own question and is [Privatisation and Affirmative Action].

What is a backward class

Facts. Indra Sawhney v. Union of India, AIR 1993 SC 477, decided 16 November 1992 by nine judges. Challenges to the memoranda implementing the Mandal Commission's twenty-seven per cent reservation for the socially and educationally backward classes in central services, and to a further ten per cent for other economically backward sections.

Held. Among the fourteen summarised answers, on identification: