The Supreme Court junks a PIL seeking to do away with caste-based job reservation for Dalits, tribals and others and replaceding it with quotas based on the economic criteria

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday junked a PIL seeking to do away with caste-based job reservation for Dalits, tribals and others and replacing it with quotas based on the economic criteria.



The Supreme Court of India building in New Delhi. File pic

Dismissing the plea by Manjit Singh Sachdeva, Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the petitioner if he thought all caste barriers had ended in India.

"Do you mean to say that in our country the caste system is over? All are well placed and progressing?"

The court asked Sachdeva to urge the government to do away with caste-based reservation.

"You have to tell the government and the elected representatives to abolish caste-based reservation," the petitioner was told.

Sachdeva said political parties could not be persuaded as they had a vested interest in continuing with the reservation.

But the court was not impressed by his argument. The judges told Sachdeva to pursue the matter with the government either now or after four months when a new government will be formed.