NEW DELHI: The Constitution Amendment Bill seeking to provide reservation to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and other socially and educationally deprived groups in unaided private, professional institutions seems to have run into hurdles.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left have raised doubts over different aspects of the legislation.

The Bill is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters here on Tuesday. The nodal Human Resource Development Ministry would clear doubts raised by the BJP and Left. The government would wait for some time before moving the Bill for consideration and passage.

CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said his party had no problem with the Bill, which would keep minority institutions out of its purview. But the government should plug loopholes, which would allow "fake" minority institutions to use the Bill as an "escape route" out of their obligations to provide reservation.

The Rajya Sabha MP said his party leaders were talking to HRD Minister Arjun Singh and was hopeful of some solution being found. The party had no problem with keeping "genuine minority institutions" out of the purview of the Bill.

Sushma Swaraj, who represented the BJP at the all-party meeting called by the HRD Minister, said her party wanted "all minority institutions" brought under the Bill. They too must give reservation to the socially and educationally deprived groups including those within their own communities.

On August 12, when a seven-judge Supreme Court Bench abolished all quotas in unaided private, professional educational institutions, the immediate reaction of all parties was that reservation must be restored. Now, while the government seems optimistic that the hurdles will be removed and the Bill passed before the winter session ends in 10 days, the BJP seems determined not to support a Bill, which will make special allowances to minority institutions.

The government argues that it is an enabling legislation. It is up to the States to define the socially and educationally backward groups and communities, which will qualify for reservation.

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