Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Court verdict

The Supreme Court judgment, upholding the law providing for 27 per cent quota for OBCs in higher Central educational institutions, will usher in a new era for those sections that have been deprived of opportunities for years. It will also provide an opportunity for premier institutions such as IITs and IIMs to connect with the real India. The government has been spending crores on them and it does not make sense if the larger audience is deprived of their benefits.

Mohammed Zubair,

Bangalore

The judgment will go a long way in providing vistas to students belonging to the backward communities who constitute a substantial segment. In a highly competitive knowledge society, reservation may seem illogical after 60 years of Independence but considering the gap between the students belonging to the OBCs and the forward castes in access to higher education, the judgment is welcome.

K.M. Lakshmana Rao,

Visakhapatnam

Reservation in higher education will, hopefully, break the monopoly of the forward castes in higher education. The court’s direction to the Centre to exclude the creamy layer, however, is a setback. Reservation is based on social, not economic, considerations. Will all children of citizens who earn more than, say, Rs.5 crore a year be barred admission in Indian colleges as they can afford to study abroad? The Supreme Court verdict is a partial but significant victory for social justice.

Rev. J. N. Manokaran,

Chennai

The judgment is unfortunate. Deserving students, despite scoring good marks and despite being poor, will be denied an opportunity to enter into premier institutions just because they belong to a particular caste.

The term ‘creamy layer’ is subjective and cannot be defined properly. The issue is bound to create another round of agitations.

R. Vaidheeswaran,

Singapore

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Clearing the air
Building safety into roads
Sochi summit: a disappointing finale
Music has no religion
A farce which shows how badly we need the state
Life is like that for this woman in uniform
Corrections and clarifications
Court verdict
Tibet issue

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu