By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday frowned at an ever-lengthening list of backward castes that are eligible for reservation in educational institutions and state jobs.
“Is there a list of total number of castes,” asked a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, while hearing petitions challenging the legality of the Constitutional Amendment Act and the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006.
“It is strange that in the absence of an outer limit we are adding more and more castes to the list,” the bench observed.
It made the observation as senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, arguing against the government’s reservation policy, said, “India is shining but backwardness is increasing rapidly with the (rising) number of backward castes.”
Challenging the policy, Venugopal contended that the benefits of reservation are cornered by the advanced segments or the ‘creamy layers’ of the backward castes that remain marginalized despite the country’s economic advancement.
He said the government had been adding more and more castes to the list of backward castes purely for electoral gains.
The senior counsel pointed out that the number of the list of backward castes has swelled since 1950.
The list had 1,373 castes in 1950 while in 2006 it had 5,013, Venugopal said referring to various reports including that of first backward class commission headed by Kaka Kalekar which in 1955 identified 2,399 castes and the second commission led by B.P. Mandal which in 1980 identified 3,763 castes.