Discussion
Which article empowers the State to make special provision for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes?
Answer: B
Correct answer: Article 15(4)
Article 15(4) permits the State to make any special provision for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. It was added by the First Amendment in 1951, after the Supreme Court struck down caste-based reservation in State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan as violating Article 15(1). Its companions extend the principle: Article 15(5), added in 2005, allows reservation in educational institutions including private unaided ones; Article 15(6), added in 2019, allows up to 10 per cent for economically weaker sections; and Article 16(4) permits reservation in public employment. These are not exceptions to equality but applications of it, resting on the reasoning in Article 14 that treating unequals equally is itself unequal. In Indra Sawhney the Supreme Court capped total reservation at 50 per cent and excluded the creamy layer, though the EWS quota was upheld in 2022 despite exceeding that ceiling.
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