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Apex court reserves verdict in quota case

J. Venkatesan

At the conclusion of marathon arguments for 25 days

Quota law will divide society, perpetuate caste system: petitioners
Reservation policy flows from the mandate of equality: Centre

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved verdict on the petitions assailing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, providing for 27 per cent OBC quota, and the 93rd Constitution Amendment under which the legislation was enacted.

Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari were on the Constitution Bench which heard marathon arguments for 25 days spread over three months from August 7.

The petitioners argued that implementation of the quota law would divide society on caste lines and result in perpetuation of the caste system. It would create entrenched rights which, in turn, would create pressure or opinion groups. Reservation was intended only as a bridge to shorten the gap and it could not be continued in perpetuity. Further, as per Supreme Court judgments, the state was bound to review reservation from time to time and what was once a backward class could not be treated as a BC forever.

Creamy layer

It was argued that failure to exclude the creamy layer from the benefits of reservation would render the quota law unconstitutional and void.

As the creamy layer would be the socially and educational advanced section of a caste, its inclusion would result not only in unequals being treated as equals but also in the rest of the backward caste losing the benefit of reservation to this advanced section.

Moreover, the quota law could not be implemented on the basis of the identification of the Other Backward Classes done as per the 1931 census.

Though the Act contemplated fresh identification, it was not done till today, the petitioners said.

The impugned Act was unconstitutional for the reason that a wholly arbitrary power was delegated to the Centre without any guideline laid down for identifying the socially and educationally backward classes under Article 15 (5), and no machinery was provided for this purpose. Historical discrimination of certain classes was not by itself a factor for determining the beneficiaries under the 27 per cent OBC quota law, the petitioners argued.

In its response, the Centre said it could not be disputed that large sections were socially and educationally backward. Though the estimated OBC population was 52 per cent, the quota was restricted to 27 per cent in view of the 50 per cent cap on reservation fixed by the apex court. Further, it was not possible to exclude the creamy layer.

In response to a query from the court how long the quota law could continue and whether there could be any time limit for reservation for the OBCs, the Centre made it clear that conceptually there could not be any time limit imposed for the policy of reservation in admissions to educational institutions or in 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 Centre was of the view that it was the beginning of a long overdue process of social engineering.

Though a significant start had been made, this was not the time to set any time limit for reservation.

The States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, and the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal supported the Centre.

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