SC firm on quota stay

The government today failed to get the Supreme Court order staying the 27 per cent quota for the "other backward classes" (OBCs) altered, with the judges insisting on first getting the data on the "creamy layer" "" second-generation recipients of the government's reservation policy "" and then introducing reservation in the higher educational institutions.

"You want to play the game first and then lay down the rules of the game," the Bench, consisting of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice LS Panta, remarked before dismissing the government's application for a change in the court's order passed on March 29.

Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh, for whom introducing OBC quotas from this academic year was a personal mission, said he would react to the court order only on Tuesday.

The Bench observed that since the relevant data had not been collected for the past 56 years, why not wait for another year. The court clarified that the earlier order had stayed the reservation in elite central educational institutions only for this academic session.

Solicitor General Gulam Vahanavati moved the application and emphasised that the general quota candidates in any institution would not suffer because the seats in such institutions could be raised to accommodate OBC candidates.

This argument did not impress the judges, who said even the new seats would be subject to the quota rule.

Harish Salve, arguing for those who opposed the reservation, submitted that between March 29 and today, no new factor has come into play that justified the earlier order.

He also contended that if the number of seats in the institutions were raised, the general quota candidates could still claim a share in it because the infrastructure was created with the tax-payers' contribution.

After hearing 90 minutes of arguments from both sides, the court delivered a cryptic order that said it did not find any reason to vary the earlier order.

The main reason for keeping on hold the key provision of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 wa s that it was based on data collected in 1931. No official study has been conducted since then.