The Central government in a written reply to the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that collecting data to determine the backwardness of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) community is neither feasible nor desirable, Times of India has reported.

This statement was made in the context of determining whether the backwardness of government employees belonging to SC or ST communities at the time of their promotions. The centre also told the apex court that these employees are automatically entitled to a quota in promotions.

The centre claimed that backwardness is a mixture of both social and economic factors. It contended that economic backwardness is quantifiable, but it is challenging to find parameters for social backwardness.

The reply thus stated that once a community is registered as SC or ST based on backwardness, the test of backwardness is met. The reply added that SC and ST is a homogeneous group and any regrouping based on socio-economic factors won’t be appropriate.

While being on the subject, the centre categorically stated that there is a difference between SC/ST and Other Backward Castes (OBC) hence backwardness may be relevant for the latter. It also said that promotion in reservation was not applicable for the OBCs.