E.V. Chinnaiah case
Also called: E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh · Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh (2004) is a Supreme Court judgment on the Scheduled Castes list. The Court held that all castes in the presidential list under Article 341 form one homogeneous class, meaning one uniform group. So a state could not divide SCs into sub-groups to share the SC quota. The ruling blocked state efforts to give the most backward SCs a bigger share.
Example
The Court struck down Andhra Pradesh's 2000 Act, which had split SCs into four groups. Twenty years later, in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (1 August 2024; seven judges, 6:1), the Court overruled Chinnaiah. It held that SCs are not homogeneous and that states may sub-classify them, based on empirical data (real evidence).
Don't confuse with
- Davinder Singh case (2024): this is the later ruling that allowed sub-classification of SCs. Chinnaiah had barred it.
Related concepts
- Reservation in promotion
- 77th Constitutional Amendment Act 1995
- Catch-up rule
- Consequential seniority
- 82nd Constitutional Amendment Act 2000
- Claims of SCs and STs to services
- M. Nagaraj case
- Jarnail Singh case
- Davinder Singh case
- Sub-classification of Scheduled Castes