Revisit quota laws, SC tells TN, Karnataka

Agencies

 

NEW DELHI, 14 July 2010: The Supreme Court has asked Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to revisit laws which provide for more than 50% reservation in jobs and education. A bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia, Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Tamil Nadu government to place all quantifiable data available with it before the State Backward Class Commission which will review the quota law. The court said, certain parameters laid down in Mandal Commission case will have to be taken into account by the Tamil Nadu Backward Class Commission while examining the quota law.

The bench extended the interim orders of the apex court for one more year. It had made operational the quota law of Tamil Nadu government providing 69% reservations to OBCs, SCs and STs in government jobs and educational institutions. However, Karnataka government was restrained from going ahead with its policy of 73% reservation for such groups in accordance with the apex court order in Mandal Commission case. It had fixed a ceiling of 50% reservation for reserved categories. 

The bench passed the order disposing of two batches of petitions, saying, it was not expressing any opinion on the validity of the laws. The first batch of petitions had challenged the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of seats in Educational institutions and of appointment or posts in the services under the state) Act, 1993, providing 69% reservations.

The second batch of petitions had challenged the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in the Service under the State) Act, 1994, which provided 73% reservations. In the case of Karnataka, which through an interim order, was restrained from exceeding the 50% quota, the state was also asked to re-examine its law based on the fresh data if it wanted to provide reservations beyond the ceiling.
 

While disposing the petitions, the court noted that since the matter was brought before the apex court, there were two amendments in the Constitution pertaining to Articles 15 and 16 providing reservations for OBCs in higher educational institutions and quota for Backward Classes in promotions respectively. Since the academic year of 1994-95, the apex court had been passing directions asking Tamil Nadu government to create additional seats for open category students in educational institutions until the petition challenging 69% reservation was decided.
 

The petition filed in 1993 by an NGO had challenged the constitutional validity of 69% reservation provided by the state on the ground that the apex court had ruled in the Indra Sawhney (Mandal case) that the percentage of reservation should not exceed more than 50%. The law providing 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu was placed in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to make it beyond the purview of judicial scrutiny. However, a nine-Judge Constitution bench had in 2007 held that the power of judicial review could not be taken away merely by putting a law under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.