UPA, Left to discuss quota ruling

The issue of the Supreme Court stay on OBC quotas in higher education will come up for discussion at a meeting of the UPA and the Left parties next week.

"We have been told that the UPA and the Left parties will meet after the SAARC Summit. An all-party meeting will also be held for wider consultations later," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters after a meeting of the Politbureau here. He said the Politbureau referred the matter to the Central Committee for a detailed deliberation.

"It is a very serious issue that the court has stayed a unanimous legislation of Parliament. While it is the right of the legislature to make laws, it is the right of the judiciary to interpret them. We think this delicate balance has now come into question," Yechury said.

Referring to the judgement, Yechury said it was "legally inconsistent" as the two-judge Bench had gone against a verdict on the OBC job quotas that was given by a nine-judge Constitution Bench in 1992.

On Nandigram, he said the West Bengal State Committee of the party would submit a report, which would be taken up for an open discussion by the Central Committee.

The question of special economic zones and the party's stand on it would be debated in the context of the Nandigram experience, Yechury said.