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“The Constitutional validity of Amending Act 77th Amendment Act 1995 and 85th Amendment Act 2001 whereby clause (4A) has been inserted after clause (4) under the Article 16 of the Constitution has already been upheld by the Constitution Bench of Hon’ble Apex Court in M. Nagraj case (supra) holding that neither the catch up rule nor the Constitutional seniority is implicit in Clause (1) and Clause (4) of Article 16 rather the concept of catch up rule and consequential seniority are judicially evolved concepts to control the extent of reservation. The source of these concepts is in service jurisprudence. These concepts cannot be elevated to the status of an axiom, like secularism, constitutional sovereignty, equality code etc. forming basic structure of the Constitution. It cannot be said that by insertion of concept of consequential seniority the structure of Article 16 stands destroyed or abrogated. It cannot be said that equality code contained under Articles 14, 15, 16 is violated by deletion of catch-up rule.

“Clause (4) of Article 16, however, states that the appropriate Government is free to provide for reservation in cases where it is satisfied on the basis of quantifiable data that backward class is inadequately represented in the services. Therefore, in every case where the State decides to provide for reservation there must exist two circumstances, namely, “backwardness” and “inadequacy of representation’. As stated above, equity, justice and efficiency are variable factors. These factors are context- specific. There is no fixed yardstick to identify and measure these three factors, it will depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. These are the limitations on the mode of the exercise of power by the State. None of these limitations have been removed by the impugned amendments. If the concerned State fails to identify and measure backwardness, inadequacy and overall administrative efficiency then in that event the provision for reservation would be invalid. These amendments do not alter the structure of Articles 14, 15 and 16 (equity code). The parameters mentioned in Article 16(4) are retained. Clause (4-A) is derived from Clause (4) of Article 16. Clause (4-A) is confined to SCs and STs alone. Therefore, the present case does not change the identity of the Constitution.” After so stating, it was observed that there is no violation of the basic structure of the Constitution and the provisions are enabling provisions. At that juncture, it has been observed as follows: -