'Are Caste-Based Reservations In Education For Eternity?': Plea In Supreme Court

A plea has been moved by an Advocate before the Supreme Court seeking directions to fix time limits for expiry of caste-based reservations in education.

The petitioner Dr Subhash Vijayran, who is also a MBBS Doctor, has made the Union of India, through the Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education as respondent in the plea.

A Division Bench of Justice Nageswara Rao and Justice Hemant Gupta had on June 28th adjourned the plea for a week, after a letter seeking adjournment was circulated by the petitioner in person.

The present petitioner has argued that in reservation, a seat of a more meritorious candidate is given to a less meritorious one, which stagnates the progress of the nation. According to the petitioner, if the candidate is made capable to compete in the open instead  not only will he be empowered, but also the nation will progress.

The plea has stated that, as compared to the pre- reservation era when people strove to gain the forward tag, today people fight and spill blood for the backward tag.

"Now, we have well off doctors, lawyers, engineers, who flaunt their backward tag to gain admissions in PG courses via reservations. Even the Institutions of National Importance (INIs) like AIIMS, NLUs, IITs, IIMs, etc. are not spared. Every year 50% of their very scarce seats are sacrificed on the altar of reservations. For how long will this continue?" the plea has stated

The petitioner has also cited Supreme Court's judgement in the Ashok Kumar Thakur case, stating that majority of the Judges were of the view that review as to the need for continuance of reservation in education should be made at the end of 5 years. However, even 13 years after the Judgment, no such review has been done till date, and if it is left to the government, no such review would ever be done.

The petitioner has posed the following questions through his plea before the Apex Court:

• Are caste-based reservations in education for eternity in this country or is there a time beyond which they would be rolled back or at least start to roll back?

• Is there no other affirmative action – than to provide reservations in education – like giving the weaker sections special education, coaching, financial aid, etc. so as to enable them to compete in the open?

• Should we not empower the weaker sections by making them more competitive rather than de powering them by eternal crutches of reservation.

• Would eternal reservations in education not divide and fracture the society permanently, promote inequality, and ignite hatred, ill-will, and resentment not only against the reserved class, but also against the system?

• Being the protector of fundamental rights, is it not the bounden duty of the Supreme Court under Article 14, to put a halt to the reverse discrimination being met to the unreserved class by the eternal reservations?

"It has been 74 years since our country got independence. If still my Hon'ble Lords are of the opinion that continuance of caste-based reservations in education are in the interest of our nation, then please, by all means, dismiss this petition. But if you think that it's time for this country to enter reservation free era in education, then please take the initiative. Because our parliament would not do it – not in your lifetime – not in my lifetime – and not in the lifetimes of generations to come." the petitioner has remarked.

With calling the reservations in medical field, particularly at MD/MS level highly undesirable, the petitioner has stated that "I have never been able to understand the logic behind reservations in MD/MS. When a Parliamentarian or a Judge falls sick, he wants the best doctor or surgeon to treat him and not some humdrum second-rate who but for the reservations would never have became a doctor or a surgeon."

"Why have they then thrown the common man at the mercy of such doctors and surgeons – is beyond my comprehension" the petitioner has remarked.

The petitioner has also stated that he has personal interest in this petition to the extent that he belongs to the unreserved category, and if the petition is allowed, him along with all other unreserved category candidates, will benefit from the success of the petition.

Click Here To Download/Read Order

Click here to read the petition