The Last Mile Of Liberty: Weeding Out Privilege To Uplift The Truly Oppressed
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 31, 2025
- 2 min read
Pradnesh Prashant Dhanodkar, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.), HNLU Raipur
ABSTRACT
Indian society has one of the most infamous social stratification systems, backed by divine ordination and prevalent even to date, known as caste system. The stratification has resulted in a wide rich poor divide among the upper and lower caste communities. The dawn of national struggle and independence saw caste-system become political hot iron, with Britishers trying their every bit to trigger the fault lines and leaders like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar resisting the same. The Indian Constitution under various provisions has reserved seats for backward classes, particularly in the field of education and employment. However, with years the reservation system, primarily for SCs and STs, saw addition of Other Backward Classes, and judicial intervention fixing the ceiling to reservation at 50%.
With the passage of time the system has developed various issues like issuance of fake certificates, structural concentration, raising calls for its abrogation. However, the aim of reservation policy to secure adequate representation for backward classes, which has been substantiated by reports and surveys by various commissions and organisations, thus, making the call for its abrogation irrational. The reservation system, lately in 2024 saw another major turnaround through Supreme Court’s verdict in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh, which permitted sub-classification within SC and ST lists. The same has been implemented in the state of Telangana through ‘Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Act, 2025’.
The research work shall analyse the historical journey of the caste-system through the lenses Vedic, Mughal, and British periods. It shall also study the influence of caste-system on Indian Constitution and the birth of reservation system. The research work shall also analyse the shortfalls and misuse of the reservation system, and provide possible solutions, in the light of Davinder Singh judgement.
