Back
2002 Supreme(SC) 196
2002(1) Supreme 512
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
(Under Art. 32 of the Constitution of India)
S.P. Bharucha, CJI., Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, Umesh C. Banerjee, S.N. Variava, Shivaraj V. Patil, JJ.
Subrata Acharjee & Ors. -Petitioners
versus
Union of India & Anr. -Respondents
Writ Petition (C) No. 2 of 1993
Decided on 7-2-2002
Counsel for the Parties :
For the Petitioners : Sunil Gupta, Rajiv K. Garg, Vivek Vishnoi, Annam D.N. Rao, Ms. Gitanjali Kapoor, Abhishek Soni, Advocates.
For the Respondent No. 1 : Mukul Rohtagi, Additional Solicitor General, T.V. Ratnam, Mrs. Sushma Suri, Advocate for P. Parmeswaran, Advocates.
For the Respondent No. 2 : S. Muralidhar, Advocate.
IMPORTANT POINT
Sub Art. (3B) to the Existing Article 352 of the Constitution of India introduced by Constitution (72nd Amendment) Act, 1992 is valid and is not unconstitutional.
Headnote:Constitution of India-Article 332 -Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Legislative Assemblies of the States-Validity of the Constitution (72nd Amendment) Act, 1992 relating to issue of reservation in Tripura Legislative Assembly-Reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the Tripura Legislative Assembly on the basis other than the proportion, which the population of the Scheduled Tribes in the State bears to the total population of the State, as stated in sub-Article (3B) of Art. 332-Whether unconstitutional? (No)-Writ petition dismissed.
Held : As regards reservation of seats in the Tripura Legislative Assembly for tribals, the records depict the following:
"With a view to satisfy the aspirations of tribals of Tripura for a greater share in the governance of the State, legislative measures will be taken including those for the enactment of the Bill for the amendment of the Constitution. The Constitutional amendments shall provide that notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Tripura reserved for Scheduled Tribes shall be such number of seats as bears to the total number of seats, a proportion not less than the number, as on the date of coming into force of the Constitutional amendment, of members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in the existing Assembly bears to the total number of seats in the existing Assembly. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 shall also be amended to provide for reservation of 20 seats for the Scheduled Tribes in the Assembly of Tripura. However, the amendments shall not affect any representation in the existing Assembly of Tripura until the dissolution."
It is on this factual backdrop, the amendment in 1992 was introduced - does it violate any of the constitutional mandate? The answer, however, in our view cannot but be in the negative. Parliament may by law determine in Articles 82 and 170 ought to be attributed its proper meaning and upon consideration of the words used and the meanings to be attributed thereon, we cannot thus possibly lend concurrence to the submissions in support of the petition by reason of the transient nature of incorporation since Article 332(3B) specifically refers to until the readjustment on the basis of first census after the year 2000. In our view, no exception can be taken for incorporation of such a transient provision: Temporary measures shall have to be taken for social goal and for the benefit of the country as deemed expedient. The Parliament is the authority to understand and appreciate the need of the situation and in its wisdom has incorporated the amendment as envisaged in Article 332(3B). Thus it can neither be said to be violative of nor be said to be even of infraction of any constitutional mandate. The felt need of the society of a trouble free Tripura State stands out to be effected and thus need not detain us any further to come to a conclusion of its constitutional validity. It is to bring forth and continue with the object of the Constitution social, economic and political justice of the people of India. (Paras 9 & 10)
On the wake of the aforesaid, we do not find any merit in the petition. The same is thus dismissed without, however, any order as to costs. (Para 14)
JUDGMENT
Banerjee, J.-The validity of the Constitution (72nd Amendment) Act, 1992 is the core question in this writ petition and pertains to the issue of reservation. The Constitution (72nd Amendment) Act, 1992 introduced a further sub-Article (3B) to the existing Article 332, which the learned Advocate appearing in support of the petition has contended, runs counter to the constitutional requirement of population based representation for the people and proportional reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States. It would be convenient, however, to advert to the relevant extracts of Article 332 at this juncture and the same reads as below:
"332. Reservation of seats for Sched
uled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States.-(1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, [except the Scheduled Tribes in the autonomous districts of Assam], in the Legislative Assembly of every State.
(2) ......
(3) The number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of any State under clause (1) shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats in the Assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the Scheduled Tribes in the State or part of the State, as the case may be, in respect of which seats are so reserved bears to the total population of the State.
(3A) ............
(3B) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (3), until the re-adjustment, under article 170, takes effect on the basis of the first census after the year 2000, of the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tripura, the seats which shall be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly, shall be, such number of seats as bears to the total number of seats, a proportion not less than the number, as on the date of coming into force of the Constitution (Seventy-second Amendment) Act, 1992, of members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly in existence on the said date bears to the total number of seats in that Assembly."
2. As indicated above, the sub-Article (3B) stands incorporated in the Constitution by the above noted Act of 1992 with effect from 5th December, 1992. It is this incorporation, which stands challenged on the ground that the same negates the proportional reservation on the basis of population based representation embodied in sub-Article (3) being the key factor of the constitutional scheme of democracy, social and political equality together with social and political justice, which by themselves form the basic features of the Indian Constitution.
3. The core issue raised in the matter stands out thus to be the constitutional validity of the effort of the Parliament to provide for reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the Tripura Legislative Assembly on a basis other than the proportion, which the population of the Scheduled Tribes in the State bears to the total population of the State, as would be evident from sub-Article (3B) herein before noticed. It has further been contended that the newly introduced basis is the basis of the proportion which the number of members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly in existence on the date of commencement of the Constitution Amendment bears to the total number of seats in that Assembly as on that date. The counter affidavit filed by respondent No. 1 (Union of India), however, renders a factual support to the submission of the petitioners which inter alia records that 17 out of 60 seats were reserved for Scheduled Tribes on the basis of their percentage in the population of the State. In addition to the 17 seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, three open seats were also held by the tribal members and having regard to this position, agreement was reached to the demand of reservation of 20 seats held by the Scheduled
