The Supreme Court on July 17 agreed to hear a petition seeking to quash a government notification that discriminates against non-Mizo Scheduled Tribes of Mizoram, which has one of the best literacy percentages in the country, in reservation to higher technical courses.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued notice to the State of Mizoram and agreed to list on July 24 a petition filed by the Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union against the notification of the Mizoram (Selection of Candidates for Higher Technical Courses) (Amendment) Rules in May 2021.
The students’ union, represented by senior advocate Aditya Sondhi and advocate Vikram Hegde, said the notification arbitrarily sub-classified the Scheduled Tribes of Mizoram, disregarding any valid basis.
The union said the allocation of reserved seats for each category lacks consideration for their representation in the population.
“The reservations fail to serve the purpose of achieving social justice as 93% of seats for higher technical education have been exclusively reserved for permanent residents of Mizoram belonging to Category I, which consists solely of the Zo ethnic tribe or the majority Mizos. On the other hand, a mere 1% of seats have been designated for ‘children of other local permanent Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Non-Zo) residents of the State of Mizoram’, who are placed in Category-II,” the petition submitted.
It further argued that the notification has placed additional requirement for the candidates falling under Category II and Category III.
These include candidates in these two categories to have passed classes 11 and 12 from any school recognised by the State, whereas no such requirement is placed for those falling under Category - I, i.e., Mizos.
“Thus, the impugned notification is unconstitutional as it is discriminatory and violates the right to equality of all persons guaranteed under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution. They are discriminatory towards candidates belonging to the Non-Mizo Scheduled Tribes of the State,” the petition said.
The Census data, according to the petition, shows Mizoram is the leading State with the highest 89.3% literacy against 47.1% recorded at the national level for ST population.
“Mizo (Lushai) tribes is on the top having 95.6% literacy and Chakmas registered the lowest literacy of 45.3%...Therefore, as per clause 4 of Article 16, reservation should have been made for the non-Mizo tribes of the State to enable them to come to the same level as the majority Mizos. Instead the State of Mizoram has effectively favoured the majority Mizos to the detriment of the minority Scheduled Tribes who are more educationally backward and need access to higher education,” the petition noted.
