New Delhi:

Asserting that the idea of denying reservation to SCs and STs on account of the creamy layer concept is “condemnable”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said the government should have brought legislation in Parliament to nullify the part of the recent Supreme Court judgment that talks about the issue.

Mr Kharge said that while other aspects of the Supreme Court judgment were being deliberated upon by the party, the creamy layer concept that has been advocated should be nullified.

Earlier this month, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgment that state governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.

Supreme Court judge Justice B R Gavai had said that states must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) and deny them the benefit of reservation.

“Who do you want to benefit by bringing a creamy layer? By bringing a creamy layer (concept) on one hand you are denying untouchables and giving to those who have enjoyed privileges for thousands of years. I condemn this,” Mr Kharge told reporters here.

This issue of creamy layer that has been raised by the seven judges shows that they have not thought about SCs and STs in a serious manner, he said.

“Till the time untouchability exists, reservation should be there and will be there. We will fight for it,” Mr Kharge said.

The Congress president accused the BJP of seeking to end reservation.

The government has privatised the public sector jobs and there are a lot of vacancies, but they are not recruiting, Mr Kharge said.

“SCs and STs are not able to get jobs. No SCs are at the high-level positions. They are trying to suppress the SCs and STs by classifying them in a creamy layer,” he said.

“I found the court’s decision surprising. Those who are facing untouchability in real life and those people belonging to SCs and STs even on high posts are facing discrimination. If they have money even then they face discrimination,” Mr Kharge said.

“I would like to appeal that all people should unite and ensure that this judgment does not get recognition and this matter should not be raised again,” he added.

The Congress is discussing other things related to sub-categorisation and will decide on further steps after discussion with intellectuals and leaders of various states, he said.

“We will do everything possible for the protection of SCs and STs,” Mr Kharge said.

“I read that the PM said we will not touch this. To ensure that creamy layer (concept) will not be implemented, they should have brought (a legislation) in Parliament and nullified the Supreme Court judgment,” he said.

This government prepares bills in a few hours and now it has been about 15 days since the judgment, he said.

Mr Kharge’s remarks come a day after the Union Cabinet asserted that there was no provision for a creamy layer in the reservation for SCs and STs in the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar.

The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, held a detailed discussion on the Supreme Court judgment on the sub-categorisation of reservation for SCs and STs as granted in the Constitution.

“It is the well thought view of the Union Cabinet that the NDA government is firmly committed to the provisions in the Constitution given by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters here. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Thursday recommended to the government the appointment of three new Chief Justices to the High Courts of Uttarakhand, Orissa, and Meghalaya.

The Collegium has largely followed the norms of merit, seniority, and integrity of the judges in its recommendations.

It has recommended the appointment of Justice Ritu Bahri as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, an office that has been vacant Justice Vipin Sanghi retired on October 26. Justice Bahri is the senior puisne judge of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, and has been serving on the Bench since August 16, 2010.

The Collegium has proposed Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Orissa, a post that has been vacant since October 3 following the retirement of Justice Subhasis Talapatra. Justice Singh is the senior puisne judge in the Patna High Court.

Justice S. Vaidyanathan of the Madras High Court has been recommended for appointment as Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court. The post of the Meghalaya top judge became vacant with the retirement of Justice Sanjib Banerjee on November 1.

The Collegium, in its resolution, noted that while recommending Justice Vaidyanathan’s name, it has taken into consideration the fact that the “Madras High Court which is one of the largest High Courts in the country, is presently represented by only one Chief Justice among the Chief Justices of the High Courts”.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking an independent audit of source code of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used by the Election Commission, saying no “actionable material” was placed to indicate that the poll panel was in breach of its “constitutional mandate”. Observing that it will not venture into the “policy issue”, the Supreme Court dismissed the PIL which had also sought a direction to the poll panel to put in the public domain the audit report, if any, of EVM’s source code.

“The Election Commission of India (ECI) is entrusted constitutionally with superintendence and control over the conduct of elections. Presently, the petitioner has placed no actionable material on the record in this court to indicate that the ECI is actually in breach of its constitutional mandate,” a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said in its order.

The bench said the manner in which the source code should be audited and whether the audit report should be placed in public domain falls within the domain of the poll panel.

“On such a policy issue, we are not inclined to issue a direction of this sort which has been sought by the petitioner. There is no material before this court at this stage to indicate that the Election Commission is not taking suitable steps to fulfil its mandate,” the bench said while dismissing the PIL filed by an individual named Sunil Ahya.

The source code is a set of instructions and statements of a programmer using a computer programming language.

The ‘Hash functions’ are used to digest or condense a message down to a fixed size which can then be signed in a way that makes finding other messages with the same hash extremely difficult.

During the brief hearing, the bench referred to certain things related to the functioning of the Supreme Court and said it recently allowed electronic passes for entering into the Supreme Court. “If I start putting out what is source code in public, you know, who will be able to hack that,” the CJI said.

Before filing the petition, PIL petitioner Ahya had made representations to the Election Commission seeking an independent audit of the source code of the EVMs.

“The source code is the brain behind the EVM and it is about survival of democracy,” Ahya said.

Ahya had earlier moved the petition before the general elections in 2019. The court had then said in view of the announcement of the general elections it was not possible to go into the issues raised in the PIL.

It had, however, granted Ahya the liberty to file a fresh plea if a new cause of action arises.

After that, another fresh PIL was instituted and the bench had permitted Ahya to make a representation to the EC.

In the third plea, the PIL petitioner said he also made some representations to the poll panel and was still in the dark on what steps have been taken on the issue.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)