SC refuses to vacate quota stay second time in 2 months

NO QUOTA FOR NOW: The Supreme Court has made it clear that quotas will not be implemented this year.

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New Delhi: It's final now -- there will be no reservations for Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions for this academic year.

That was what the Apex Court ordered as it turned down the Centre's plea seeking implementation of reservations with immediate effect.

Says advocate, Youth For Equality -- an organisation lobbying against the reservations -- M L Lahoti, "The honourable Chief Justice clearly indicated to the Solicitor General that on March 29, once the stay has been passed, they are not going to interfere and vacate the stay."

This is the second time in the last two months that the Government's attempts to vacate the stay have failed.

The reasons for this are:

* The Government could not explain the reason for pegging the OBC quota at 27 per cent

* The resistance of the Government to exclude creamy layer form quota benefits.

This now means that 52 Centrally funded institutions in the country will not reserve seats for OBC students this year.

Says HRD Minister, Arjun Singh, "The Supreme Court's views are final so there is no question of the HRD Ministry trying to take any contrary view."

Ideally, the Government would have liked to see OBC reservations get a green signal from the court for this year itself, but the new road block could have a bearing on its other reservation plans.

The Government was ready with a Bill to be introduced in the Monsoon Session of Parliament to extend quotas in unaided private institutions.

However, with the Supreme Court now making it clear that these quotas will not be implemented this year, the Bill on the unaided institutions could be delayed.

(With inputs from Ashok Bagariya in New Delhi)