H.C. Mahadevappa

BANGALORE: A new forum, Samajika Nyayakkagi Horata Vedike, has decided to hold a rally in Bangalore on Friday in support of reservation in institutions of higher learning, both government-run and in the private sector.

Over 25,000 people from all over the State, including Dalits, backward classes, farmers and minority groups, will take part. The main demand will be that the Government should ensure the implementation of the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution granting reservation for backward classes in educational institutions.

The former Minister H.C. Mahadevappa, who is the chairman of the vedike, told presspersons here on Tuesday that the objective of the 93rd Amendment was to extend reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes in all educational institutions. All political parties had unanimously favoured such reservation, and this amendment had been welcomed in all quarters, he said.

Friday's rally would aim at highlighting the urgent need for giving effect to the amendment.

Tracking the journey of reservation as a constitutional guarantee, he said the Mysore Maharaja first introduced reservation in 1874 and revised and gave it a new form in 1895. In 1921, reservation was extended to education on the recommendations of the Justice Leslie Miller Committee in 1919.

After Independence, a court verdict against reservation in the Champakam Dorairajan case (1951 judgment of Madras High Court) virtually snuffed out any ray of hope for these communities, and it was left to B.R. Ambedkar, who was Union Law Minister, to bring in an amendment in 1951 that ensured continuation of reservation in most of the southern States.

Then the Kaka Kalelkar Commission recommended in 1955 to accord 70 per cent reservation for backward classes in education. The Mandal Commission report with 27 per cent reservation for backward classes came next, he said.

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