The constitutional validity of providing SC/ST reservation in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies has been challenged in the Supreme Court. On this, the Supreme Court today said that the hearing on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of extending reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies beyond the original 10-year period will be held on November 21.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said it will examine the validity of the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, which extended the quota for SC-STs in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for the next 10 years.

During the hearing, the Court clearly clarified that it would not consider the validity of the earlier extension given to the reservation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes through earlier amendments. "The validity of the 104th Amendment will be determined to the extent that it applies to SC-STs as the reservation for Anglo Indians came to an end after 70 years from the commencement of the Constitution," the bench said.

The bench also includes Justices AS Bopanna, MM Sundaresh, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra.

The Supreme Court said that the title of the proceedings would be "In Re: Article 334 of the Constitution".

Senior advocate CA Sundaram, appearing for the petitioners, said the main issue would be whether the constitutional amendments extending the period of reservation violated the basic structure of the Constitution.

There is a special provision for reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Article 334 of the Constitution. Along with this, there is mention of ending the special representation of the Anglo-Indian community by nomination in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies after a certain period.

The Supreme Court had on September 2, 2003 referred the case to a five-judge bench on petitions challenging the validity of the 79th Constitutional Amendment Act (1999) providing reservation to SC/STs in Parliament and state legislatures.

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