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'Don't Divide The Country' - S.C.
Mar 29, 2007
The Supreme Court stays implementation of the 27% OBC quota policy and asks
the government not to divide the country because of its "vote bank" and to
"determine who are the socially and economically backward".
In a severe setback to UPA government and the pro-reservation lobby, the
Supreme Court (SC) has stayed the controversial provision in the Central
Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act of 2006 enabling 27 per
cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in all government aided higher
educational institutions, including elite central educational institutions like
IITs, AIIMS and IIMs.
The SC Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and L S Panta today ruled
on the batch of petitions filed by various organisations and individuals
challenging the 2006 Act as being ultra vires the constitution. These
organisations had further challenged the centre's decision to implement the
quota, claiming that there was no relevant data on the number of OBCs in the
country.
The Bench ruled, "We are of the view that the impugned notification and
enforcing the reservation for OBCs in the educational institutions must be put
on hold as the government has failed to provide any authentic or reliable data
to justify its policy of reservation. What may have been relevant in 1931
census may have some relevance but cannot be the determinative factor.
Vote Bank Politics
The lawyer for United Student's Forum, one of the petitioners against the
Act, M L Lahoty, said that the Bench had reprimanded the centre by saying:
"Don't divide the country only because of your vote bank ...the consequences of
this quota would be very bad'."
"Reservation cannot be permanent and appears to perpetuate backwardness, "
the Bench observed, pointing out that the centre should stay away from dividing
the society on caste basis and should behave in a more responsible way, and
that the government's decision to implement the quota system was full of flaws.
Today's order effectively puts into jeopardy government's plan to implement
the new quota regime in the elite institutions and central universities from
the coming academic year; coming as it does just before the UP elections, the
political cost of the Supreme Court justice is immediate.
The judgement has therefore predictably come under immediate attack from
pro-reservation parties who have called it "retrograde, uncalled for and
unfortunate" while those opposed to the Act are understandably relieved. HRD
Minister Arjun Singh, the so-called brain behind the law, meanwhile maintains
that Parliament will stick to the provision.
Who Are The Backwards?
The centre had maintained that in the absence of data after 1931, there was
no alternative but to project population proportion of socially and
educationally backward classes and OBCs from the only source available. Holding
that the government failed to explain as to why a firm data base could not be
evolved first, the Bench kept on hold the operation of the relevant provision
of the Act dealing with reservation for the OBCs.
Disposing off the petitions against the Act passed in December last year, the
court said it will examine on merits the constitutional validity of the Act in
the third week of August. However, it allowed the government to initiate the
process for determining on a broad-based foundation as to what constitutes
"Other Backward Classes".
"The centre has to determine who are the socially and economically backward
people of India, before the Central Educational Institutions Act can be given
effect," the Bench stated. "We are of the view that the impugned notification
and enforcing the reservation for OBCs in the educational institutions must be
put on hold as the government has failed to provide any authentic or reliable
data to justify its policy of reservation" . It, however, clarified that the
benefit of reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes could not
be withheld and the centre can go ahead with the identification process to
determine the OBCs.
"...It would be desirable to keep on hold the operation of the Act so far as it
relates to Section 6 thereof for the OBCs category only. We make it clear that
we are not staying operation of the statute, particularly, Section 6 so far as
the SC and ST candidates are concerned," Justice Pasayat, writing the judgment
for the Bench, said.
Creamy Layer
The Court said that while dealing with reservations, the concept of "creamy
layer" becomes important as the centre has maintained that it was applicable to
only Article 16 (4) and not Article 15 (5) of the Constitution.
While Article 16 (4) empowers the state to make provisions for reservations for
any backward class not adequately represented in the government jobs, Article
15 (5) enables the state to provide quota for socially and educationally
backward classes.
Observing that the concept of creamy layer cannot prima facie be considered to
be irrelevant, the court said "it, therefore, needs no reiteration that the
creamy layer rule is a necessary bargain between the competing ends of caste
based reservations and the principle of secularism. It is a part of
Constitutional scheme".
However, the Bench noted with pain, "Nowhere else in the world do castes,
classes or communities queue up for the sake of gaining backward status.
Nowhere else in the world is there competition to assert backwardness and then
to claim we are more backward than you. This truth was recognised as an unhappy
and disturbing situation in Indra Sawhney (Mandal) case".
Although the state, the Bench clarified, is constitutionally empowered to enact
affirmative action measures for backward classes, "differentiation or
classification for special preference must not be unduly unfair for the persons
left out of the favoured groups".
Confronting The Judiciary
With the final hearing postponed till the third week of August, the
government is faced with the task of providing adequate and sufficient data on
OBCs to the Supreme Court. Would the government be able to do within four
months what it has not been able to do for the past so many years? Clearly, the
UPA government's main agenda for wooing the OBCs has hit a constitutional
road-black.
But the government cannot act surprised or shocked.
After all, the constitutional provision is well-known and a similar court
decision had forced the government to take the Parliament route to pass the OBC
quota law. In August 2005, in the Inamdar Case, the Supreme Court had quashed
quotas in unaided minority and non-minority institutions, pointing out that it
was a violation of their autonomy and freedom.
The politicians had reacted by passing a unanimous resolution calling for OBC
quotas in unaided institutions. That is when Mr Arjun Singh got into the act in
2006, who introduced the 93rd amendment in the form of a bill granting 27 per
cent OBC quota. It had led to resignations by the country's most respected
intellectuals from the Prime Minister's Knowledge Commission. This bill was
referred to a parliamentary standing committee, which had recommended that the
creamy layer be left out, as per the well established law in the Indra Sawhney
case. It was pointed out that quota for the creamy-layer would be patently
unconstitutional, and initially the CPM had also opposed the inclusion of
creamy layer. Eventually, however, populism had won the day and the government
went ahead by including the creamy-layer as beneficiaries as well.
Typically, the politicians would want to make it into one more case of
judicial intervention in its domain and instead of providing data that could
satisfy the court, the political class may cynically respond by bringing an
amendment to over-rule the SC's stay. But that is bound to be challenged in
court, and the court could well once again strike it down. However, if the
government is really interested in uplifting the lot of the "backward" it would
do well to exclude the creamy layer and to provide authentic data to the court
so that those who genuinely need reservation could actually be granted the
benefit.
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