PLEA SEEKS REVIEW OF SC VERDICT QUASHING 100% ST RESERVATION: ‘JUDGEMENT WILL FURTHER SUPPRESS SCHEDULED TRIBES’

A Review Petition has been filed against the Supreme Court’s judgment by which a State Government Order affirming 100% reservation for Scheduled Tribe (ST) teachers in a scheduled area of Andhra Pradesh was quashed. Filed by KV Bharathi Upadhyaya, the review petition pleads that the judgment would only create further divide and encourage more suppression, even though the Supreme Court, while passing the judgement had followed the dictum in Indira Sawhney judgment (Indira Sawhney v Union of India), according to which Reservations would be constitutionally valid only as long as they do not go beyond 50%. The review petitioners claim that the ruling effectively takes away the rights of people belonging to the tribal community as well as other minorities to get adequate and appropriate representation within the settings of their own community.