SC on quota

·         On April 10, 2008 settling the controversial reservation issue in education, the Supreme Court upheld the law providing 27 per cent quota for OBCs in IITs, IIMs and other central educational institutions and said the “creamy layer” cannot enjoy the benefit.

·         A five member constitutional bench headed by the Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan asked the government to draw parameters to identify the creamy layer.

·         Besides the Chief Justice, other members on the Bench included, Justice Arijit Pasayat, Justice C. K. Thakker, Justice R. V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari.

·         The new policy, if implemented, would take the overall reservation in the Government-funded higher education institutions from the current 22.5 (for SC and ST students) to 49.5 per cent.

·         With the court clearing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, the elite institutions may have to implement the quota in the 2008-09 academic session.

·         The Bench upheld the validity of the Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act 2005 empowering the Centre to come out with the special law for OBC reservation in educational institutions of higher learning.

·         The members of the Bench, which delivered four separate judgments, were unanimous that the 93rd amendment and the 2006 legislation providing for the quota were “not violative of the basic structure of the Constitution”.

·         The only divergent view was relating to the constitutional validity of the 93rd amendment in relation with private unaided institutions, with four judges leaving the issue open since none of those institutions had approached the court.

·         However, Justice Dalveer Bhandari held that “imposing reservation on unaided institutions violates the basic structure by stripping citizens of their fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) (g) to carry on an occupation”.

·         With the verdict, reservation in higher educational institutions will go up to 49.5 per cent.

·         Justice Dalveer Bhandari in his judgment pitched for excluding children of former and sitting MPs and MLAs from taking the benefit of OBC quota.

·         In the 2007-08 budget, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram allocated Rs.26.98 billion for central educational institutions under the HRD ministry providing for 54 percent increase in the number of seats.

·         In the budget for 2008-09 an allocation of about Rs.25.22 billion has been made for central universities - IITs, IIMs, NITs etc, for the purpose.