The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Friday opposed the Supreme Court’s judgment allowing the sub-classification of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to exclude the better-off among them from reservation benefits.

It also called on the Janata Dal United of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to “withdraw support to the BJP-led government at the Centre and topple it” if it did not grant “special category status” to Bihar.

“Our party is against the sub-categorisation of the SCs and STs with regard to reservation. We hold it (sub-classification) to be against the 1932 Poona Pact and the spirit of the Constitution,” RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav told reporters in Patna.

“We also oppose the introduction of the concept of ‘creamy layer’ among them (SCs and STs) because the quota was not provided on the basis of their economic condition.”

The younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad asserted that the creamy layer provision can be brought in only after providing people from the SC and ST communities with jobs and assessing their landholdings.

He stressed that the practice of untouchability still existed, with instances of temples being washed after the entry of Dalits, and Dalits being denied the right to ride mares during weddings.

“Nobody should try to become the malik (lord) of the SCs and STs. They know what is good for them. The central government should bring in an ordinance to remove the unsuitable provisions (in the Supreme Court judgment), just as it did with the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” Tejashwi said.

The apex court on Thursday ruled that governments could sub-classify SCs and STs to ensure that the more deprived among them did not lose out on the benefits of reservation through unequal competition with their better-off brethren.

The RJD also accused the Centre of misleading Parliament over protecting Bihar’s enhanced reservation volume for the SCs, STs, Other Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes from judicial review by including them in the Ninth Schedule of
the Constitution.

The then Mahagathbandhan government, in which Tejashwi was deputy chief minister, had conducted a caste-based survey and enacted two laws last November hiking the total quota volume from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. It had also sent a proposal to the Centre to include these laws in the
Ninth Schedule.

Patna High Court, however, struck these laws down in June this year saying they violated the Supreme Court directive stipulating a 50 per cent ceiling for the total reservation volume.

The Bihar government challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which refused to stay the verdict but agreed to hear the appeal.

Tejashwi said that RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj Kumar Jha had recently sought to know whether the Centre planned to include the two Bihar laws in the
Ninth Schedule.

“The minister of state for social justice and empowerment, B.L. Verma, categorically said in his written reply on July 31 that the inclusion of the reservation hike laws in the Ninth Schedule came under the purview of the state government,” Tejashwi said.

“This was a wrong and misleading reply because it is the responsibility of the Centre to include laws in the Ninth Schedule. He (Verma) misled the Upper House and violated its sanctity.”

Tejashwi asserted that his party would move an application before the Supreme Court on Monday, presenting its views on the matter in connection with the Bihar government’s appeal against the high court order.

“We will implement the reservation hike implemented by the (erstwhile) Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar at any cost. We will fight from the streets to Parliament. We will go to the people after August 15,” Tejashwi said.

He questioned Nitish’s silence on the Centre’s alleged lack of interest in granting Bihar the special category status or protecting the state’s reservation laws from judicial scrutiny.

He expressed suspicion that the BJP was always against these demands and was scheming to scuttle them.