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OBC law

The Supreme Court’s refusal to modify its interim order restraining the Centre from implementing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher educational institutions for 2007-08 is a blow to social justice. Reservation is certainly not a means to achieve the utopian goal of a casteless society. It is only a step towards empowering the backward classes and ensuring their due representation in the polity.

Estimates show that the OBCs constitute more than 27 per cent of our population. Would an exact count today be the basis to increase their quantum of reservation from 27 per cent? The government should produce the latest facts on OBCs’ educational and financial backwardness to enable the final verdict to be in their favour.

T. Marx,
Karaikal

The order is shocking. It is justice denied because reservation to premier institutions has already been delayed by 60 years.

M. Ilanko Xavier,
Dindigul

Senior counsel Harish Salve is right in saying that the law providing for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in elite institutions will only create a vested interest in backwardness. There are umpteen castes in India and no one knows how many among them are really backward. Almost all of them compete with one another to get themselves enlisted in the OBC category irrespective of their social status. The only remedy is to do away with the quota system based on caste.

P.U. Krishnan,
Udhagamandalam

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