New Delhi: After nearly three decades of the Indra Sawhney judgment, the Supreme Court said on Monday that the 50 per cent cap on reservation laid down by a nine-judge bench in 1992 could be re-examined in view of the subsequent constitutional amendments and the socio-economic changes that followed.
The top court posed six queries while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Maratha reservation. The Constitution bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said: “Does the judgment in the case of Indra Sawhney vs Union of India needs to be referred to a larger bench or require re-look by the larger bench in the light of subsequent Constitutional amendments, judgments and changed social dynamics of the society etc.?”
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Maharashtra government, submitted that the principal question which has arisen for consideration is interpretation of the 102nd Constitutional amendment.
He added that the interpretation of Article 342A is going to affect the legislative competence of the state since the submission which was pressed by the writ petitioners in the high court was made after the 102nd Constitutional amendment by inserting Article 342A. Tthe state legislature has no competence to legislate with regard to reservation of economically and socially backward communities.
