Initially, the percentage of reservation (in 1950 CONSTITUTION) provided reservation of 12.5 per cent for the SCS and 5 per cent for the STs but these percentages were subsequently enhanced in 1970 to 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent for SCs and STs respectively. The res­ervation was provided in jobs, admission to colleges and universities, and the central and state legislative assemblies.

Our Constitution guarantees/stipulates justice and equality of opportu­nity to all its citizens. It also recognizes that equal opportunity implies competition between equals, and not ‘un-equals’. Recognizing the inequal­ity in our social structure, the makers of the Constitution argued that weaker sections have to be dealt with on a preferential footing by the state. A special responsibility was, thus, placed upon the state to provide protection to the weaker sections of society.

Accordingly, the Constitu­tion provided for protective discrimination under VARIOUS articles to accelerate the process of building an egalitarian social order. Thus, prefer­ential treatment for the depressed classes (SCs and STs), including reserva­tion of seats, should not be understood as an act of magnanimity on the part of the POLITICAL elite at the national level but rather a strategy to give them a share in power in politics and ADMINISTRATION and to uplift them socially and economically.