The Hindu Business Line : OBC quota law held valid

New Delhi, April 10 The Supreme Court, in a significant verdict on Thursday, upheld the law enacted by the Union Government providing 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes in Central educational institutions such as IITs/IIMs from the academic year 2008-09.

A five-Judge Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice, Mr K.G. Balakrishnan, in an unanimous verdict running into over 500 pages, also held that the 93rd Constitution Amendment inserting Article 15 (5) in the Constitution to enable the Centre and States to enact quota laws is valid.

The court disposed of a batch of petitions questioning the quota law and the 93rd amendment. In March 2007, the apex court had restrained the Centre from implementing the quota law on the ground that no data was furnished by the Government and the data relied on was only 1931 census.

While deciding the issue in favour of the government, the court had struck a balance by directing exclusion of creamy layer among the backward classes.

It said “the 93rd Amendment Act is not violative of basic structure so far as it relates to State and aided educational institutions. We do not find Article 15(5) to be conflicting with Article 15(4).” The court also agreed with the Centre to exclude minority educational institutions from Article 15(5) and said “it does not violate Article 14 as minority educational institutions are a separate class.”

The court, however, made it clear that creamy layer should be excluded from the socially and educationally backward classes. “Without exclusion of creamy layer, the SEBC (Socially and Educationally Backward Classes) list is not valid. As far as the parameters for identification of creamy layer are concerned, the office memorandum dated September 8, 1993 may be applied. OBC should be deemed to mean SEBC after exclusion of creamy layer. The creamy layer principle does not apply as far as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are concerned."

The court held that the 2006 quota Act cannot be held invalid on the ground that no time limit for reservations has been prescribed. However, a review of the backward classes list must be made after 5 years.

The court said that the definition of OBC in Section 2(g) of the Act shall be read as ‘SEBC’ other than SC/ST determined by Central Government, and if the determination is with respect to caste, creamy layer shall be excluded.

It said the Central Government shall examine whether a criteria of grace marks of 5 can be granted to backward classes and thereafter if any seats remain vacant, they shall be split with the general category students.