Fate of Schedule Tribes sub-quota in Mizoram uncertain after Supreme Court ruling

Mizoram's ST quota sub-classification faces uncertainty after Supreme Court ruling, leading to delays and re-strategizing by the government.

The fate of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) quota sub-classification in Mizoram plunged into uncertainty within days of the Supreme Court of India in a ruling permitted States to sub-categorise Scheduled Castes (SCs) and STs. 

Months before the judgment, the Mizoram government had placed the sub-classification of the State’s ST quota in higher education on hold, and started working on amending the reservation rule that separated Mizo tribes from non-Mizo tribes. 

Mizoram’s Education Minister Vanlalthlana said the government’s work on the sub-classification of STs would now have to be re-strategised after considering the Supreme Court’s ruling and its implications, adding that this would most likely delay amendments to reservation rules that have been in the works from at least March this year. “It is a sensitive issue and we will have to balance the interests of all communities,” he said. 

In the meantime, there will be no categorisation within the ST quota, the government has said in an affidavit before the Gauhati High Court. State government sources told The Hindu that an internal meeting is scheduled this week on the Supreme Court’s ruling so that a path for the future could be charted out.  

The sub-categorisation within STs in Mizoram was brought in through the Mizoram (Selection of Candidates for Higher Technical Courses) Rules, 2016 and has been mired in legal challenges ever since. The Rules provided for reserving 99% seats for STs in admissions to courses in Medical Sciences, all branches of Engineering and Technology, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Forestry, and Fishery.

But within this 99%, children of Zo-ethnic people had 95% and children of non-Zo-ethnic people had 4% reservation.