This Constitution Bench will reconsider M Nagaraj v. Union of India

The case relating to reservation for SC/ST in the matter of promotions will be heard by a Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indu Malhotra.

The Court in the case will be reconsidering the correctness of its 2006 judgment in M Nagaraj v. Union of India.

In M Nagaraj v. Union of India, the Supreme Court had held that the State is not bound to make reservations for SC/ST employees in the matter of promotions. However, it had also laid down three factors which ought to determine the State’s policy in this regard. They are:

(i) backwardness of the class;

(ii) inadequacy of representation in service; and

(iii) overall administrative efficiency

Further, the 5-judge Constitution Bench in M Nagaraj had also held that the State has to gather quantifiable data to determine the adequacy of representation and extent of backwardness of a certain class

In November last year, a Division Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R Banumathi had, had heard a plea filed by the state of Tripura and referred it to a Constitution Bench to decide the correctness of Nagaraj.

In that order, the Bench noted that the issue of interpretation of Article 16 – especially in the context of three apex court cases on reservations, namely, Indra Sawhney and others v. Union of India, EV Chinnaiah v. State of AP and M Nagaraj and others v. Union of India and others – was under debate.

It was further noted that there were calls to revisit M Nagaraj, given the fact that it failed to refer to Chinnaiah, which preceded it. Moreover, it was argued that the test of backwardness for the SC/ST community, as mandated by M Nagaraj, requires a relook. This, the Bench determined, could only be looked into by a Constitution Bench.

A similar case came up for hearing before a Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra on July 11 this year when Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan and Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the matter needs to be heard at the earliest.

The Bench then proceeded to tag this matter along with the case heard by Justices Kurian Joseph and R Banumathi and directed that they should be heard at 2 pm on August 3.