There could be no clubbing together of backward classes and extremely backward classes for the purpose of providing reservation, the Supreme Court said today.

Setting aside a Jharkhand High Court order upholding a state government notification of October 10, 2002, ordering amalgamation of the two classes, a Bench of Justice AR Lakshmanan and Justice

LS Panta said it violated Article 14 which mandated that only equals should be treated equally. ‘‘It is well settled that to treat unequals as equals also violates Article 14 of the Constitution,’’ it ordered.

The Bench said inclusion or non-inclusion of a class in the list eligible for reservation was the job of the Backward Class Commission.

In the present case, the Bench noted that the reservation for extremely backward classes had been granted on the recommendation of a Commission constituted for this purpose. ‘‘The recommendation is based after a detailed survey.’’

‘‘On the other hand, when the amalgamation of the categories took place, there were no material or empirical data to indicate the circumstances had been changed other than a mere bald statement to the effect,’’ it observed.

The SC also asked the state to constitute an expert committee to enquire into the recommendations/complaints of over-inclusion and under-inclusion of various groups.

Jharkhand had adopted a Bihar law providing 73 percent reservation for appointments in government services.

The law was challenged in the HC which then reduced it to 50 per cent. Consequently, the state issued notification reducing the reservation to 50 per cent and also merged the two classes.

... contd.