The Hindu : National : Quota a long overdue process of social engineering: Centre

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Quota a long overdue process of social engineering: Centre

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday justified in the Supreme Court the law providing for 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes in higher education institutions.

Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati told a five-judge Constitution Bench that it could not be disputed that large sections of the population were socially and educationally backward. “It is nobody’s case that the total population of OBCs is less than 27 per cent.”

The Bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, is hearing petitions challenging the 93rd Constitution Amendment and the quota law enacted under it.

NSSO survey

On the petitioners’ contention, quoting figures of the National Sample Survey Organisation, that the OBC population was 36 per cent, Mr. Vahanvati said, “It was only a sample survey which is primarily concerned with employment and unemployment statistics.” He said “the NSSO conducted another round of survey last year and it was published in October 2006 indicating that the OBC population is around 41 per cent.”

Though the estimated OBC population was 52 per cent, “we have restricted the quota to 27 per cent in view of the 50 per cent cap [on reservation] fixed by this court.”

Mandate of equality

Mr. Vahanvati said, “27 per cent reservation in relation to appointments in posts has been upheld in Indra Sawhney’s case [Mandal case]. In the quota law, Parliament has made provisions to ensure that reservation does not affect seats in the general category.”

In his response to the question put by the court, during arguments by the petitioners, how long the quota law could continue and whether there could be any time limit for the quota for the OBCs, the Solicitor-General said: “Conceptually, there cannot be any time limit imposed for the policy of reservation in admission or employment. The policy of reservation flows from the mandate of equality and till the time the constitutional objective of ‘real equality’ is achieved, there is a constitutional mandate on the state to have special provisions in the nature of reservation for the uplift of backward classes.”

The policy of reservation was framed by the Legislature, which itself would conduct a review to ascertain the advances made and the ground covered. Reservation in Central educational institutions was introduced for the first time 57 years after the Constitution came into force. “It is the beginning of a long overdue process of social engineering. A significant start has been made. This is not the time to set any time limit for such reservation.”

Failure to meet target

When Mr. Vahanvati was making his submissions on the government’s efforts towards universalisation of elementary education, the Bench said: “Your effort for higher education to backward classes would require lesser effort if you bring elementary education among them up to a level. You can’t go to the second floor without passing through the ground floor.”

It said: “You reach a higher level of education after you complete elementary education. The right to education will remain only on paper if you don’t address this problem. You spend Rs. 36,000 crore for higher education for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) but there is failure to meet the target of elementary education.”

When the Bench asked what should be the primary requirement for social empowerment of backward classes, the Solicitor-General said, “It is a question of priority and both of them could go together.” “The attempt is to balance both elementary and higher education. Neither elementary nor higher education can be ignored. We are doing simultaneously and it is a permissible exercise.”

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