In April, the Supreme Court upheld a 2006 law providing a 27% quota for candidates belonging to the “other backward classes” (OBC) in state-funded institutions of higher education.
The educational institutions affected include the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management.
However, the court also directed the government to exclude the “creamy layer” when implementing the law. The “creamy layer” refers to certain socially advanced persons or sectors.
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A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan gave the nod to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, starting in the 2008 academic year. There are still questions, however, about the depth of the measures.
One of India’s top lawyers, K Venugopal, who represented the Junior Doctors Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, said the move may not go far enough: “According to [the] judgment, the Indian Institute of Management and All India Institute of Medical Sciences will not have any reservation for other backward classes,” he told Rediff.com.
“Justices Arijit Pasayat, CK Thakker and Dalveer Bhandari clearly said in their judgment that you ceased to be OBC when you are educated and attain graduation … that means if you are not educationally backward you are not OBC. The court has accepted the argument that if you are able to graduate you are not entitled to reservation.
“This judgment has upheld the economic criteria of 1993 depriving a large number of members of OBC from benefiting from [the] reservation. It is a serious setback to the government which wanted to fill up prestigious institutes with OBC quotas. Today’s judgment has kept graduation as the cut-off point that will reduce the number of beneficiaries of OBC reservation.”
“The 1993 criteria to decide ‘creamy layer’ amongst OBC section says that people with landed property, all government employees above Class II, all OBC families with a monthly income of Rs 20,000 … are barred from availing any reservation from now onwards,” Venugopal continued.
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