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Order on referring OBC quota case to larger Bench today

J. Venkatesan

Formulate questions to be decided: Supreme Court Formulate questions to be decided, says Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will decide on Wednesday the question of referring to a larger Bench a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the legislation providing 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes in elite Central educational institutions.

To enable it to take a decision, a Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice L. S. Panta asked the Centre and counsel for the parties to formulate questions to be decided in the matter for the consideration of the larger Bench.

`Of public interest'

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati submitted that the issue involved great public interest and suggested that the matter be referred to a larger Bench.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior counsel Harish Salve found fault with the counter filed by the Centre in one of the petitions stating that all the issues raised by the petitioner had been concluded in the Indra Sawhney (Mandal) case.

He said the basic question involved was the basis for determination as to who belonged to the OBC and the modalities for the implementation of the policy.

Mr. Vahanvati, however, said he had briefly enumerated the questions that needed interpretation by a larger Bench, viz. the true ambit and scope of Article 15 (4) and 15 (5) of the Constitution and whether the test for their interpretation are the same as for Article 16 (4); whether the concept of creamy layer formulated in relation to Article 16 (4) was applicable in relation to reservation in educational institutions under Article 15 (4) and 15 (5).

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the Rashtriya Janata Dal, said that ultimately in a democracy when the matter concerned a 25-crore population "that itself is a matter to be heard by a Bench of as many judges as possible so that people will have the satisfaction that their views were heard by a larger Bench."

K. Parasaran, appearing for Tamil Nadu, endorsed Mr. Jethmalani's submissions.

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