NINTH SCHEDULE

NINTH SCHEDULE

Subject : Polity

Context : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a petition seeking an immediate stay on the implementation of a Tamil Nadu law that allows 69% quota in educational institutions and government jobs in the State.

Concept :

• Tamil Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of seats in Educational Institutions and of appointments or posts in the Services under the State) Act of 1993 is protected under the ninth Schedule of the Constitution from judicial review.
• Section 4 of the Act provides 30% reservation to the Backward Classes, 20% for the Most Backward Classes and de-notified communities, 18% for the Scheduled Castes and 1% for the Scheduled Tribes. Thus, a total of 69% reservation is provided.

Ninth Schedule

• The Schedule contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts and was added by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951.
• The first Amendment added 13 laws to the Schedule. Subsequent amendments in various years have taken the number of protected laws to 284 currently.
• It was created by the new Article 31B, which along with Article 31A was brought in by the government to protect laws related to agrarian reform and for abolishing the Zamindari system.
• While Article 31A extends protection to ‘classes’ of laws, Article 31B shields specific laws or enactments.
• While most of the laws protected under the Schedule concern agriculture/land issues, the list includes other subjects.
• Article 31B also has a retrospective operation which means that if laws are inserted in the Ninth Schedule after they are declared unconstitutional, they are considered to have been in the Schedule since their commencement, and thus valid.
• Although Article 31B excludes judicial review, the apex court has said in the past that even laws under the Ninth Schedule would be open to scrutiny if they violated Fundamental Rights or the basic structure of the Constitution.