SAMTA ANDOLAN SAMITI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PARAGRAPH 2 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India, to the extent it is relevant, reads as under:

(2.) ARTICLE 16 (4A) of the Constitution enables the State to make any provision for the reservation in matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, to any class or classes of posts in the services under the State in favour of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services under the State.

(3.) THE petitioners before this Court have been submitting representation seeking restraint on making any constitutional amendments, with respect to reservation in promotion, without mandate from the people of India, and also opposing issue of Whip by the political parties on the proposed Constitutional amendments. The apprehension of the petitioners is that in violation of the law declared by the Supreme Court in Kihoto Hollohan (supra), restricting disqualification incurred on account of voting or abstaining from voting by a member to such cases where change of Government is likely to be brought about or is prevented, as the case may be, as a result of such voting or abstinence or when such voting or abstinence is on a matter which was a major policy and programme of which the political party to which a member belongs went to the polls, the respondent No. 5 Indian National Congress and respondent No. 6 Bhartiya Janta Party, both of which are political parties, are likely to issue Whip to their respective members to vote in favour of the proposed 117th amendment to the Constitution. The following are the prayers made in the writ petition:-