Date:17/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/17/stories/2007041707300100.htm

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"1931 census not basis for OBC list"

J. Venkatesan

1993 notification for future: Centre

Mandal identification based on 1980 realities

No need to hold up long overdue reservation

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday filed an application in the Supreme Court for vacating the interim stay on implementation of 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in elite educational institutions.

Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati mentioned the matter before a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat with a request for early hearing. Justice Pasayat said that since the order was passed when he was sitting with Justice L.S.Panta, Mr. Vahanvati should mention it before the same Bench.

Mention before Chief Justice

To a question from the Solicitor-General when he would sit with Justice Panta, Justice Pasayat said, "I can't say."

Indications are the application would be mentioned before Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan requesting him to constitute the Bench comprising Justices Pasayat and Panta.

Acting on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006, the court stayed the implementation of the law insofar as it pertained to the 27 per cent quota for the OBCs.

Criticism flawed

The Centre, in its application, referred to the court criticism that the list of socially and educationally backward classes/other backward classes was flawed because it was based on the 1931 census. But "the 1931 census was not the basis for identification of castes for inclusion in the lists of socially and educationally BC/OBC. The census of 1931 was used only for the limited purpose of deriving the proportion of the SedBC/OBC in the total population of India. The identification of classes by the Mandal Commission was based on the realities that prevailed in 1980, and not in 1931."

The SedBCs/OBCs were already identified and notified. "Such identification and notification by the Centre in 1993 onwards is for prospective application for all purposes including the present purpose of reservation in education. The procedure for changes in those lists has already been laid down by the Supreme Court and the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 2003. Therefore there is no need for any fresh identification and further hold-up of the already long overdue reservation or percentage for the SedBC/OBC in education under the impugned Act."