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Quota cases for 5-judge Bench

Legal Correspondent

Plea to vacate stay posted for July 31

NEW DELHI: A five-judge Constitution Bench will hear a batch of petitions challenging the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, and the 93rd Constitution Amendment law under which the legislation was enacted. The Act provides for 27 per cent quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in higher education institutions.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justices R. V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari on Tuesday said it would decide next week the date for hearing by the Constitution Bench. Earlier, Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati said the Centre had filed a fresh application for vacating the March 29 interim stay order, which restrained the government from implementing the quota law for the academic year 2007-2008. Considering the urgency, it should be taken up for hearing immediately.

Senior counsel for the parties Rajeev Dhavan, Mukul Rohatgi, M. L. Lahoty, and others opposed the application saying the Centre should not be allowed to raise the same issues again and again. Mr. Dhavan said that since a two-judge Bench had elaborately heard the matter and stayed the implementation, a three-judge Bench could not sit in appeal over that decision.

Mr. Vahanvati, however, maintained that nothing would preclude the Government from filing interlocutory applications if new things came to light. The Bench asked counsel for the parties to file their response to the Centre’s application in 10 days and posted it for July 31.

The Centre said that subsequent to the stay order, the apex court, in the case of Voice (Consumer Care Council) vs. Tamil Nadu (questioning the validity of the 69 per cent quota law in the State) directed creation of additional seats for “open category” candidates, who, in the opinion of the court, were deprived of admission due to reservation provided for in the impugned Act.

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