In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that its 2004 verdict holding that states do not have the power to further sub-classify the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for grant of quotas needed to be revisited by a seven or more judges bench.

The apex court said states should be allowed to provide preferential treatment to the “poorest of the poor” among SCs and STs and advocated that an “authoritative pronouncement” was needed with respect to the effect of Constitutional provisions and whether sub-classification is permissible only with respect to the socially and educationally backward classes and not with respect to SCs and STs.

The top court observed that the benefit of quota by and large is not percolating down to the "neediest and poorest of the poor" and it was “crystal clear” that creamy layer concept for excluding affluent people "can be applied to” SCs and STs. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said the 2004 verdict of a bench of same strength in the E V Chinnaiah case had held that states cannot give preference to certain Scheduled Castes as it would amount to “tinkering with” the Presidential list of SCs and STs under the Constitution and this required to be relooked.

“Reservation was not contemplated for all the time by the framers of the Constitution. On the one hand, there is no exclusion of those who have come up, on the other hand, if sub­classification is denied, it would defeat right to equality by treating unequal as equal,” the top court said. It further said “The State cannot be deprived of the power to take care of the qualitative and quantitative difference between different classes to take ameliorative measures."