Moily report reaches PMO, members show dissent

OBC, SC panel members unhappy with phased reservation.

The Oversight Committee's recommendation to implement the 27 per cent quota for other backward castes (OBCs) over three years in institutes of higher education has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office, even while there is bitter discontent among members over this clause.

Most OBC and Scheduled Caste members on the committee are furious at phased reservations. A committee member, Mohan Gopal, has written a dissenting note, questioning the legal basis of phasing the reservations over three years.

Gopal, who is also the National Judicial Academy chairman, said he would now write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as there was no legal basis for phased reservations.

"The expansion of seats is being undertaken only for the retention of general category seats. So it is the retention which has to be phased, and not reservation," he told Business Standard from Thiruvananthapuram.

However, Chairman Veerappa Moily has put his foot down, saying legally, the committee has no mandate for phased expansion (for retention). Moily said this in a letter to Gopal in response to his dissenting note.

UGC Chairman S Thorat expressed surprise when told the report had been sent to the PMO on Saturday night.

"How can it be sent," he asked. However, he said there was no meeting scheduled to take place to discuss the loose ends like phased quotas.

Gopal also said the report seemed to be final. "So I am writing to the Prime Minister on this issue," he said.

In his letter to the committee, which he has requested be appended to the report, Gopal has written that phased reservation goes against the very terms of reference of the committee.

The terms say the committee has to implement 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher education institutions. It also says the committee should assess infrastructure needs for expanding seats so that the general category seats are not reduced. This implies that expansion is for retention and not for reservation.

The issue of phased reservation was bitterly fought over within the committee, even before the interim report was released in July, with members including Gopal, Thorat and B Mungekar, pointing out that the law entitles OBCs to 27 per cent reservation from next year and it cannot be staggered.

In an interview with Business Standard in July, Moily had said the committee would recommend a 50:50 strategy for accommodating seats for OBCs and the general category in the phased expansion.