NDA: Reserving seats for SCs, STs must continue

NEW DELHI: The NDA government has strongly batted in the Supreme Court for continuance of reserving constituencies for SCs and STs in Parliament and assemblies saying the condition which warranted such reservation in 1950 continue to exist even today.

Under Article 334, the framers of the Constitution had mandated that some constituencies needed to be reserved for the SCs and STs for a period of 10 years, that is up to 1960.

However, routine and repeated constitutional amendments have been passed in Parliament extending the reservations every time for 10 years, which now remains valid till 2020.

After 67 years of the Constitution coming into existence, a PIL had challenged the constitutional amendments routinely extending the provision for reserved constituencies on the ground that no study had been carried out about the necessity of such reservation even though the Constitution-framers intended it to last only for 10 years.

The ministry of law and justice through additional solicitor general Maninder Singh conveyed to the court that delimitation of constituencies prescribed by Parliament was immune from judicial scrutiny.

"Due to reservation in legislature provided by the Constitution to the SCs and STs, they have made considerable progress, though not to the desired level for which the provision was made. Hence, there is still a need to continue further the said provisions," it said.

"Even after lapse of time, the members of SC and ST communities were far below in competing with other sections of the society," it said.

The government said extending the period for keeping constituencies reserved for SCs and STs was in sync with Article 46 of the Constitution which mandated that states as a matter of policy were obliged to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, particularly those of SCs and STs.