SC RESERVATION AND CRITERION

1.Context:

2.Constitution order of 1950

• The constitution order of 1950 was enacted to recognise only Hindus as SCs, in order to address the social disability practice of Untouchability
• The Order was amended in 1956 to include Dalits who had converted to Sikhism and once more in 1990 to include Dalits who had converted to Buddhism.
• Both amendments were aided by the reports of the Kaka Kalelkar Commission in 1955 and the High Powered Panel (HPP) on Minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in 1983 respectively.
• Union government in 2019 rejected the possibility of including Dalit Christians as members of SCs, rooting the exclusion on an Imperial Order of 1936 of the then colonial government, which had first classified a list of the Depressed Classes and specifically excluded “Indian Christians” from it

3.Reasons for exclusion of Christians from Dalits

• After the inclusion of Sikhs in SCs, The registrar general of India (RGI) was not open to expanding the spectrum of the Order beyond Hinduism and Sikhism
• The RGI responded to the Ministry of Home Affairs' request in 1978 to add Dalit Buddhists and Christians as " SC status is meant for the communities of which are suffering from disability of practising Untouchability, which is prevalent in Hindu community and Sikh community"
• It also stated that "if any such move of adding other community people into SCs will swell up the population of SC community in the country"
• However, the amendment to include Buddhist converts as SCs was passed in 1990, which at the time did not require the approval of the RGI -a mandate introduced in the rules for inclusion framed in 1999

• Moreover, the RGI opined that since the practice of “untouchability” was a feature of the Hindu religion and its branches, allowing the inclusion of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians as SCs could result in being “misunderstood internationally” as India trying to “impose its caste system” upon Christians and Muslims
• The 2001 note also stated that Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin had lost their caste identity by way of their conversion and that in their new religious community, the practice of untouchability is not prevalent.

4.Several Reports

• The petitions arguing for inclusion have cited several independent Commission reports that have documented the existence of caste and caste inequalities among Indian Christians and Indian Muslims, noting that even after conversion, members who were originally from SCs continued to experience the same social disabilities

• In addition to this, the petitions have argued against the proposition that caste identity is lost upon conversion, noting that even in Sikhism and Buddhism, casteism is not present and yet they have been included as SCs
• The above-mentioned reports argue that caste-based discrimination continues even after conversion, hence entitling these communities to SC status
• The Union government refuses to accept the reports of the Commissions on the basis that these reports do not have enough empirical evidence to support their claims

5.Instances where Union Government tried to add Dalits Christians in SCs

1. The closest a government has got to including Dalit Christians as SCs came in March, 1996, when based on a recommendation of the then Ministry of Welfare, the P. V. Narsimha Rao government first brought a Bill to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order accordingly.
2. When this could not be passed, the government within days attempted to include Dalit Christians as SCs through an Ordinance, which was sent to the President of India for assent after the due approval of the erstwhile Prime Minister, but could not then be promulgated.
3. The Atal Bihar Vajpayee government had in 2000 repeatedly sought the opinion of the Office of the RGI and the then National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on whether Dalit Christians could be included. Both had recommended against the proposition