Supreme Court rules out OBC reservations this academic year
In a major embarrassment for the government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (8th August 2007)declined to lift its freeze on reservations for other backward classes (OBCs) in institutions of higher learning for the current year, signalling a victory for anti-quota advocates.A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said the government had not advanced any new reason for the court to revoke its March 29 order suspending the law.
A stunned Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh declared: “There is no question of any contradictory view to that of the Supreme Court. We will abide by it.”
Apart from Justice Balakrishnan [also the first Dalit Chief Justice of India], the bench also comprised of Justices Arijit Pasayat, R.V. Raveendran, C.K. Thakkar and Dalveer Bhandari.
It may be recalled that a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and LS Panta had on March 29, 2007 suspended the implementation of 27 percent OBC quotas, raising no less than twenty five constitutional queries regarding the move.
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United Students would like to remind readers that we’ve consistently endorsed an alternative system of affirmative action, called MIRAA [multiple index related affirmative action] which is free of the defects of flat caste based quotas. Read more here.