Quota Within Quota Upheld To Benefit Most Marginalised: CJI Gavai At Oxford Union

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Last Updated:June 11, 2025, 13:43 IST

CJI Gavai stated that sub-categorisation within quotas is essential for justice to reach the most marginalised, emphasizing the Constitution's role in addressing caste and poverty.

Amid the intensifying debate over caste census and reservation policies, Chief Justice of India B R Gavai has said sub-categorisation within quotas is not an “attack" on the policy of reservation, but a necessary refinement to ensure justice reaches the most marginalised.

Addressing a gathering at Oxford Union in London, CJI Gavai said, “The sub-classification within Scheduled Castes does not question the relevance or success of reservations. It seeks to ensure that those most historically deprived — even within these communities — are not left behind."

CJI Gavai emphasised the role of the Indian Constitution as a “social document" that confronts injustice head-on. “The Constitution does not avert its gaze from the brutal truths of caste, poverty, exclusion, and injustice. It does not pretend that all are equal in a land scarred by deep inequality," he stated.

“Instead, it dares to intervene, to rewrite the script, to recalibrate power, and to restore dignity," he added.

States Empowered To Sub-Classify SCs To Grant Quota To More BCs Within Reserved Category: SC

Last year, the Supreme Court held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward.

In a landmark verdict, a seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, by a majority of 6:1, set aside the apex court’s five-judge bench verdict of 2004 in the EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case which had held that no sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) can be allowed as they are a homogeneous class in themselves.

“The State in exercise of its power under Articles 15 (non-discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth) and 16 (equality of opportunity in public employment) of the Constitution is free to identify the different degrees of social backwardness and provide special provisions (such as reservation) to achieve the specific degree of harm identified," held the CJI in his 140-page judgement.

Ananya Bhatnagar

Ananya Bhatnagar, Correspondent at CNN-News18, reports on various legal issues and cases in lower courts and the Delhi High Court. He has covered the hanging of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, JNU violence, De...Read More

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