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On behalf of the respondents Shri K.K. Venugopal, learned senior counsel appearing for the State who led the argument on behalf of the respondents, contended Article 341 only empowers the President to specify the castes in the Presidential List and the Parliament to include or exclude from the specified list any caste or tribe and beyond that no further legislative or executive power is vested with the Union of India or the Parliament to decide to what extent the castes included in the Scheduled Castes List should be given the benefit of reservation which according to the learned counsel depended upon their degree of backwardness. His further argument is that the authority to decide to provide reservation or not, and if yes, then the quantum of reservation to be provided is the exclusive privilege of the State. In that process the State will have to keep in mind the extent of backwardness of a group be it other backward class, Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. Therefore, having found a class of persons within the Scheduled Castes as having been deprived of such benefits the State has the exclusive legislative power to make such grouping for reservation under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution subject, of course, to Articles 245-246 of the Constitution. Since in the instant case there is no allegation that there has been any violation of Articles 245-246, the argument of lack of legislative competence advanced on behalf of the appellant should fail. He further submitted that there is an obligation on the State under Article 16(4) to identify the group of backward class of citizens which in the opinion of the State is not adequately represented in the service under the State and make reservation in their favour for such appointments and under Article 15(4) of the Constitution there is an obligation on the State to make special provisions for the advancement of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and what the State has sought to do under the impugned Act was only to make such a provisions to fulfil the constitutional obligation after due enquiry, hence, the allegation of violation of Article 14 cannot be sustained. He strongly relied on the findings of fact recorded in Justice Raju Commission's report which according to him establishes that some particular groups within the Scheduled Castes have cornered all the benefits at the cost of others in the said List, therefore, with a view to see that the benefit of reservation percolates to the weaker of the weakest it had become necessary to enact the impugned law. The learned counsel submitted that by re- grouping the castes in the Scheduled Caste List there is no reclassification or micro classification as contended by the appellants.

Some other counsels also argued that neither Article 341 nor any other provisions of the Constitution prohibits the State from performing its obligations under Articles 15(4), 16(4) and 16(4A) of the Constitution and categorising the various castes found in the Presidential List of Scheduled Castes based on inter-se backwardness within them. Reference was also made to the Constituent Assembly Debates and Reports to point out that it was the intention of the Constitution makers to confer the power of classification of Scheduled Castes on the President or the Parliament as the case may be under Article 341 of the Constitution. A further classification of the caste within the List if became necessary, the same could be done by the State only under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution.

(2) Whether the impugned enactment is constitutionally invalid for lack of legislation competence?

(3) Whether the impugned enactment creates sub-classification or micro classification of Scheduled Castes so as to violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India?

We will first consider the effect of Article 341 of the Constitution and examine whether the State could, in the guise of providing reservation for the weaker of the weakest, tinker with the Presidential List by sub- dividing the castes mentioned in the Presidential List into different groups. Article 341 which is found in Part XVI of the Constitution refers to special provisions relating to certain classes which includes the Scheduled Castes. This Article provides that the President may with respect to any State or Union Territory after consultation with the Governor thereof by Public Notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory. This indicates that there can be only one List of Scheduled Caste in regard to a State and that List should include all specified castes, races or tribes or part or groups notified in that Presidential List. Any inclusion or exclusion from the said list can only be done by the Parliament under Article 341(2) of the Constitution of India. In the entire Constitution wherever reference has been made to "Scheduled Castes" it refers only to the list prepared by the President under Article 341 and there is no reference to any sub-classification or division in the said list except, may be, for the limited purpose of Article 330, which refers to reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes in the House of People, which is not applicable to the facts of this case. It is also clear from the above Article 341 that except for a limited power of making an exclusion or inclusion in the list by an Act of Parliament there is no provision either to sub-divide, sub-classify or sub-group these castes which are found in the Presidential List of Scheduled Castes. Therefore, it is clear that the Constitution intended all the castes including the sub-castes, races and tribes mentioned in the list to be members of one group for the purpose of the Constitution and this group could not be sub-divided for any purpose. A reference to the Constituent Assembly in this regard may be useful at this stage.

Justice Fazal Ali in the very same case referring to caste enumerated in the list of Scheduled Caste stated thus in paragraph 169 :-

"Thus in view of these provisions the members of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes have been given a special status in the Constitution and they constitute a class by themselves".

(Emphasis supplied.) Thus from the scheme of the Constitution, Article 341 and above opinions of this Court in the case of N.M. Thomas (supra), it is clear that the castes once included in the Presidential List, form a class by themselves. If they are one class under the Constitution, any division of these classes of persons based on any consideration would amount to tinkering with the Presidential List.