No OBC quota for this session: SC

NO QUOTA: SC was not convinced by the arguments put forth by Centre and refused to vacate the stay.

Other stories in the section:

School takes lotus off logo, sparks political debate

The lotus in the logo has been replaced with a globe.

• Raj's deadline expires, MNS men held

• State of neglect: Deluged Bihar falls off Govt map

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• OBC quota: SC issues notice to Govt
• Orissa to cut OBC quota in govt jobs
• Court passes quota with some reservations

Keywords: Govt, Supreme Court

New Delhi: The future of thousands of students has finally been decided at least for this year.

In what could be big a blow to the Government's pro-reservation stance, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to vacate the stay on 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in elite educational institutions like IIMs and IITs.

The Centre wanted a modification on the Supreme Court's March 29 order staying the reservation for OBCs, but the Apex Court refused the same making it clear by saying that the Centre is “first trying to play the game and then framing the rules”.

On Friday, the Centre had moved an application before the same bench of the Supreme Court which had stayed the quota on March 29 - Justices Arijit Pasayat and L S Panta - asking for clarification and lifting of the stay.

The Court had in March ruled that the 1931 census could not be a determinative factor for identifying the OBCs for the purpose of providing reservation.

Meanwhile, on Saturday the Government issued a directive to all IIMs, asking them not to declare the list of selected candidates until further notice.

Going by the existing academic calendar, the IIM admission lists should have been out latest by April 12.

The IIM - which had been waiting for a final order from the Ministry of Human Resource and Development - will release their admission list for the current academic session.

Once the IIM list is out then many other institutes can also come out with its list. However, they can release the list only once the HRD Ministry withdraws its directive to them.

IIM Ahmedabad Director, Bakul Dholakia said, "Clarity has emerged now. We want the Government to withdraw its directive so we can admit students."

IIMs had increased about 30 seats in each institution after the quota issue came up to accommodate students from the OBC category, but with the SC ruling these seats have come under question and may be put aside for this year.

There has been no reaction from the HRD Ministry yet on the Supreme Court's verdict.

On March 29, the Bench clarified that the benefit of reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes could not be withheld. It said that the Centre could go ahead with the OBC identification process to determine the backward classes.

This meant that if the Government could provide the court with authentic data on who constitute the OBCs in India, then reservation may be implemented in favour of people who genuinely need it.

However, what is obvious is that the Centre could not give enough valid points for the Supreme Court to vacate the stay on the OBC quota.

The UPA Government was under tremendous pressure regarding the implementation of quota in premier institutions.

DEFENCE lAWYER, M L LAHOTI EXPLAINS:
	On Monday the Supreme Court heard extensively, the Central Government's application for vacating the stay on OBC quota which had been granted by SC on March 29. The submission of both sides lasted for 75 minutes after which the SC rejected the Central Government's application. The SC was of the view that if the Central Government had waited for 56 years - from 1950 to 2006 - then they can wait for one more year.
	The Central Government was asked why it was not excluding the creamy layer from the OBC quota. The judges had said that the creamy layer does not deserve any reservation.
	The third thing that the SC asked the Central Government was that why should there be reservation in institutes of super speciality.
	And finally, when the Centre said that this 27 per cent was additional seats which had been created so that no inconvinience shuld be caused to the General Category, then the SC said that these 27 per cent extra seats were created by the revenue generated by all the citizens of the country. Under Article 29, all the citizens have a right to this investment.
	Ultimately the Supreme Court said that it was going to decide against the Central Government. A date has been fixed in August for the final hearing.