Govt pushes education quotas

States free to block seats and regulate fees in private colleges.

The Cabinet today approved the introduction of a Constitutional Amendment Bill aimed at reserving seats for socially and economically backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in unaided private educational institutions.

The Bill also seeks to regulate the fees of such institutions. The Bill will enable states to enact their own laws to provide for reservation and set fees.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that the extent of reservation and the issue of fees would be left to the states.

While the impact of the move on business schools is not clear, the proposed constitutional amendments will help the southern Indian states regulate admissions in private engineering and medical colleges.

In states like Tamil Nadu, the move could result in the reservation of nearly 70 per cent of seats in private unaided colleges, officials said.

What impact the move will have on private educational institutions that offer professional courses and enjoy the status of a "deemed university" also cannot be gauged as it is not clear if such institutions will be regulated by states or by the University Grants Commission.

Officials indicated that the Bill might also result in the Centre dropping its plans for a legislation to regulate admissions and set fees for private professional educational institutions.

The decision comes despite a Supreme Court ruling that states did have no say in the reservation of quotas in private unaided institutions.

"The Supreme Court judgment is known to you. I cannot react but only legislate for the sections that I mentioned.... I am not questioning the judgment but Parliament is the supreme law-making body," Dasmunshi said.

He said the government was expecting the Bill to be passed during the current session of Parliament as the amendments had been backed by a "majority consensus" among all political parties. The amendments will not provide for reservation in minority institutions.