Revision as of 16:49, 24 September 2015

A brief history of violent agitations seeking caste-based reservations (affirmative action); Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 27, 2015

The Patels' stand on inclusion in OBC quota; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, August 27, 2015

OBC reservations: A history

The Times of India, Aug 31 2015

Social engg now a race for backward status

Dhananjay Mahapatra

The Morarji Desai government had set up a commission headed by B P Mandal on January 1, 1979, to identify socially and educationally backward communities to provide them with reservation in government employment. The commission, in its report in December 1980, recommended 27% reservation to other backward classes (OBCs).

In 1990, the V P Singh government dusted out the report and implemented its recommendations.Protests and judicial scrutiny could not impede the new political mantra -social engineering.

Two decades later, social engineering got a facelift when the Centre extended the 27% OBC quo ta to admissions in educational institutions. This too got the thumbs up from the Supreme Court.

Though it upheld extension of OBC quota in college admissions, the SC had expressed its view against the perpetuation of reservation. It disapproved of the politically motivated tendency to swell the list of OBCs. It had suggested a comprehensive study on OBCs to exclude those which had benefited from quota to shake off the historical social and educational disadvantages. Will a ruling party ever bite the survey bullet when elections continue to be fought on caste lines? They have scant regard for repeated SC rulings to limit the quota to 50% of the total availability of jobs or seats in colleges. In many states, it touches the 70% mark.

As space for merit shrinks in jobs and educational institutions, a cauldron of frustration is getting fuelled by competent youngsters, left behind by the not-so-competent armed with an OBC certificate. No wonder, the Jat community agitated and succeeded in getting OBC status. The SC had to step in and rescind the Centre's decision.

In the Ashoka Thakur judgment, which upheld 27% quota for OBCs in educational institutions, the SC underlined the recent trend of `forward' castes seeking `backward' status.

It warned, “When more and more people aspire for `backwardness' instead of `forwardness', the country itself stagnates.“

The SC had also warned, “While affirmative discrimination is a road to equality , care should be taken that the road does not become a rut in which the vehicle of progress gets entrenched and stuck. Any provision for reservation is a temporary crutch. Such crutch by unnecessary prolonged use should not become a permanent liability .“

While striking down quota for Jats in Ram Singh vs Union of India (March 17, 2015), the SC had said the determination of social and educational backwardness to warrant award of reservation benefits to a community must be based on contemporary data and not historical perception.

The SC had asked that if government after government claimed to have achieved all round development of the country and communities, why were more and more communities getting included in the list of OBCs and not a single exclusion? Was this the meaning of all-round development that more and more communities were getting backward? No ruling party dare order a survey that would deprive communities of reservation as they fear losing votes in a geographic unit whose demographic equation has been virulently afflicted by politically crafted social engineering which has divided communities on the lines of those who have the OBC tag and those who don't.

In the Ram Singh judgment, the SC had said reservation should reach the most deserving. The yardstick to determine which community deserved reservation should be evolved using contemporary standards and must necessarily move away from caste-centric definition of backwardness, it had said.

“The perception of a self-proclaimed socially backward class of citizens or even perception of the `advanced classes' as to the social status of `less fortunate' cannot continue to be a constitutionally permissible yardstick for determination of backwardness,“ it had said.

Till political parties muster enough courage to undertake a comprehensive study and exclude communities which, through reservation, have climbed high enough in the socio-economic ladder, many Hardik Patels will emerge as rallying points for frustrated young victims of reverse discrimination.

Position in individual states

Rajasthan: 68%

The Times of India, Sep 23 2015

Raj govt breaches 50% bar, quota now at 68%

The Rajasthan assembly on Tuesday passed two bills granting 5% reservation to Gujjar-led special backward classes (SBC) and 14% to economically backward classes (EBC), taking the total quota quantum in the state to almost 68% -well over 50%, the ceiling that twice got quota laws of the state rejected. The Vasundhara Raje government also pushed through resolutions urging the Centre to place the twin bills in the 9th schedule of the Constitution to buffer them from legal scrutiny.

Raje's decision came a day after Mohan Bhagwat stirred a storm by suggesting that the reservation system be reviewed. In hiking reservations in jobs and educational institutions, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje may have been moved by her state-level compulsions.

But the controversial move of the saffron satrap who just fended off a determined Congress bid to corner her on her links with controversial cricket administrator Lalit Modi may also help the party outside the state, especially because of its sheer timing.

The state government secured passage of the two bills designed to reserve another 19% of seats in educational institutions and government jobs, that is, over and above the 49% already “reserved“.This comes at a time when the BJP is under attack from its opponents over Mohan Bhagwat's remarks on reservations.

Bhagwat's comments suggesting that quotas needed to be de-politicized and the issue of who all should get reservation benefits be examined by a group of experts have been interpreted by BJP's diverse opponents as Sangh Parivar's alleged opposition to reservations.

The charge, if it sticks, can play havoc with BJP's prospects in assembly elections in Bihar where both JD(U) and RJD have tried to revive the Mandal faultlines and turn the contest into a backward versus forward affair. However, Raje's action, cynical in terms of its brazen disregard of the Supreme Court-mandated 50% cap on quotas as well as the certainty of it being struck down by judiciary at the first turn, serves the purpose of showing that BJP can travel to the same extraor dinary lengths as its rivals to appease the clamour for quotas.

Bhagwat's remarks caught BJP unawares not just because they coincided with the party's determined drive to wrest control of Bihar with the help of a rainbow coalition comprising upper castes, OBCs sans Yadavs and Kurmis, most backward castes and Dalits.

His comments on reservations, certainly the way they were portrayed in certain quarters, interferes with Sangh Parivar's plans to make inroads among Dalits, a project which has got underway with an outreach to the Scheduled Castes and the canonization of B R Ambedkar in the saffron pantheon.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP outpolled Congress among Dalits with Modi's projection as an OBC contender for prime minister helping the party net backwards which had been alien territory for it.

“In Bihar, BJP has OBC leaders like Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Prem Kumar who have always occupied top positions. We have always received significant support from MBCs and Dalits who were given short shrift by parties which serves the interests of individual caste leaders and so people will laugh at the suggestion that we, that too at a time when our PM is an OBC himself, are opposed to quotas.That said, however, the remark was avoidable,“ said a BJP functionary who insisted on anonymity .

The view of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The Times of India, Sep 22 2015

Row erupts over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief's quota remark

The call for a committee of politically neutral persons to examine criteria for reservations is, in fact, part of a 1981 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh resolution displayed prominently on the organization's website. The resolution, while supporting reservation as a means to achieving a more equal society , says, “The committee should also recommend necessary concessions to the other economically backward sections with a view to ensuring their speedy development. “The ABPS (all India representative council of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)agrees with the prime minister's (Indira Gandhi) viewpoint that reservations cannot be a permanent arrangement, that these crutches will have to be done away with as soon as possible, and that because of this arrangement, merit and efficiency should not be allowed to be adversely affected. The Sabha appeals to all other political parties and leaders as well to support this viewpoint and initiate measures to find a solution to the problem.“ Sources said Bhagwat's remarks related to the argument -often raised even by reservation beneficiaries -that quota benefits are cornered by some influential castes and need a second look to protect the really vulnerable. The 1981 resolution supports reservations but expresses concern that quotas have been a “tool of power politics and election tactics“ generating ill will and conflict in society.

Quota games: The race backwards

The Times of India

Subodh Ghildiyal | TNN

With No Govt Daring To Carry Out Prescribed Purge Of Communities From OBC List, Purpose Of Reservations Defeated

The joke is that if Jats and Marathas are backward, then may as well put Thakurs and Brahmins on the OBC list and end the farce. With Jats recently put on the central list of backward classes, the day is not far when Marathas and Jat-Sikhs too will be in queue for quotas in jobs and education.

It’s a strange race where more and more communities, dominant in contemporary times, want to be categorized as backward castes or OBCs. The sole objective: Availing the 27% job quotas. Despite the clout of these resourceful groups, the weak-kneed political class has caved in to demands, fearing their wrath in the elections.

If UPA2 accorded Jats OBC status at its last cabinet meeting, it was after electoral calculations about how the decision would benefit the alliance. Days ago, the National Commission for Backward Classes had “rejected” the proposal, saying Jats were “not socially or educationally backward”.

Congres is not the first villain. The blame lies with former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee who promised the community backward status on an election trail in Rajasthan and fulfi lled the promise in 1999. The irony: Rajasthan’s Jats were included in the central OBC list, but weren’t considered backward in the state.

Now, with the sounding of theelectionbugle,wordhasleaked about how the Maharashtra government is ready to carve out job quotas for Marathas. Akali Dal began demanding OBC status for Punjab’s ruling class — the Jat Sikhs.

The modus operandi is simple: Powerful groups demand backward status and up the ante around elections. Parties, wary of attracting their hostility, nod and begin seeing political wisdom in the demand. Finally, it’s clinched.

In two decades of the Mandal Commission that instituted the central quotas for OBCs, the number of backward communities has swelled from 1,352 to 2,404 castes. The race for “backwardness” and a pliant political class have played havoc with the system designed to help those weaker groups that still suffer discrimination. Experts point to a dichotomy. The farming communities were “shudras” in the caste system. Post land reforms, they’ve achieved social and economic mobility to be rid of historical stigma, says Vivek Kumar, a sociologist with Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “These communities shouldn’t get quota benefits because most would fall in the creamy layer (economic status beyond which an OBC isn’t eligible for quotas),” he argues.

The political expediency trap is messing up the tenuous social balance. The inclusion of Jats in the OBC list in 1999 triggered the Gujjar agitation. They insisted that they be put in the Scheduled Tribe list. The agrarian Gujjars lamented that resourceful and educated Jats had cornered quota benefits at their expense.

The Gujjar push was met with resistance from Meenas, a dominant ST community that loathed a competitor for its share of tribal quota, resulting in a bloodbath between the ‘martial’ groups that put the country on edge in 2007.

Many believe the open-ended process of identifying backwards provides the opening for “motivated” inclusions in the OBC list. The government can put a deadline to the process. “65 years of independence is enough to have found the backwards,” an expert says.

While the political class has been quick to capitulate to demands, it has been reluctant to bite the bullet on “exclusion” – a purge of the OBC list of communities that have made progress with time. Section 11(1) of the NCBC Act that identifi es backwards, says the OBC list should be revised every 10 years.

The fear is that communities which have made progress and run the risk of exclusion are the ones with social and economic clout to scare the political class. Post the Jat decision, OBC activists and intellectuals lament that the endless inclusions in the backward category would render redundant the concept of reservations. Many see it as an upper caste conspiracy.

That may not be far from the truth if reservations are not uncoupled with the interests of the political class and applied strictly for the purpose they were conceived.

THE EVER-GROWING LIST

1993 MANDAL COMMISSION

27% reservation in central jobs and education. Since then, number of backward castes up from 1,352 to 2,404

Section 11(1) of National Commission of Backward Classes Act says government should, every ten years, purge the OBC list of communities that have ceased to be backward

In 20 years since Mandal came into force, the purge has not happened even once

A purge can exclude strong communities like Jats, Yadavs, Kurmis and some from south India, from the OBC list

In 1999, former PM AB Vajpayee promised Jats backward status at a poll rally in Rajasthan. The state’s Jats were included in the central OBC list, but weren’t ‘backward’ in the state. Gujjars followed with their demand for ST status

Ban on double reservation benefit

SC upholds UPSC ban on double reservation benefit

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009

New Delhi: The SC on Friday upheld the validity of a civil services examination (CSE) rule virtually stopping double quota benefit for reserved category candidates who qualify on merit after competing under general quota.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices S H Kapadia, R V Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam quashed a Madras High Court order which had termed the CSE rule 16(2) as unconstitutional. Rule 16(2) provides an opportunity to reserved category candidates, who rank among the general category, to fall back on their backward class status and improve their service choice. The improved service so availed by the reserved category candidate would then be counted against the quota posts specified for that service.

For example, if a reserved category candidate secures a rank in general category that fetches him Indian Revenue Services, then he could avail his backward status to improve his service and even get IAS.

Under Rule 16(2), the IRS post so vacated by the candidate by falling back on his SC, ST or OBC status, would then be offered to a general category candidate next in the waiting list. The HC had termed Rule 16(2) as unconstitutional as it was detrimental to the intention of socially affirmative action provided under the law.

Challenging this judgment, the Centre and a host of petitioners termed the HC ruling anomalous. Appearing for one of the petitioners, advocate Anirudh Sharma had argued that it would amount to giving reservation over and above the specified percentage of posts reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs. The SC had on June 1, 2008, stayed the HC judgment.

Writing the unanimous verdict for the five-judge bench, CJI Balakrishnan said, “Candidates who avail the benefit of Rule 16(2) and are adjusted in the reserved category should be counted as part of the reserved pool for the purpose of computing the aggregate reservations.”

PG medical quota not binding on states: SC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The Times of India

New Delhi: In a ruling having a major ramification for medical education, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that the Centre’s decision to provide quota for SCs and STs in post-graduate medical courses did not automatically bind the state governments to follow suit and implement it in their medical colleges.

It took note of the fact that the Centre has provided for reservation to SC and ST candidates in the All India Entrance Examination for MD/MS/PG Diploma and MDS courses and also in the All-India quota PG seats, but firmly handed down the ruling that “the same cannot automatically be applied in other sections where state governments have power to regulate.”

Moreover, the Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal appeared disinclined to grant a direction to the states to follow the example set by the Centre. It upheld the Haryana government’s decision not to provide quota in PG medical courses.

“In our view, every state can take its own decision with regard to reservation depending on various factors,” said Justice Sathasivam. It said: “Article 15(4) is an enabling provision and the state is the best judge to grant reservation for SC/ST/Backward Class categories at PG level in admissions and the decision of the state of Haryana not to make any provision for reservation at the PG level suffers no infirmity.”

It accepted the Bhupinder Hooda government’s explanation that reservation in undergraduate medical courses is being provided strictly as per their policy but the PG level education in medical education was governed by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

“Quota is no shield for failed students”: Delhi HC

The Times of India, Jun 19 2015

The Delhi high court refused to grant relief to a second-year undergraduate student at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University whose admission was cancelled after he failed to clear his previous four semesters. The HC further said, “Since the appellant was found ineligible after the second academic break, his admission stood automatically cancelled. Therefore, there is no question of any further chance only on the grounds of him being an SCST,“ a division bench of Justices Mukta Gupta and VP Vaish said.

Rejecting the plea of Gourav Joshiya, who was pursuing Bachelor of Technology from Amity School of Engineering and Technology , the bench upheld the single judge order refusing another chance to the student for clearing the exams and said the opportunity would have been given to him if he had been able to satisfy the necessary eligibility criteria.

“To attain an egalitarian society, we have to urgently remove socio-economic inequalities. Therefore, in order to promote weaker sections of the society , an educational institution must provide all forms of additional assistance to bring them at par with general category students. The appeal of the appellant may have been allowed on this ground alone, if he would have been able to satisfy necessary eligibility criteria for continuance of his admission with the respondents,“ the bench said.

Gourav had challenged a single judge order of May 25, denying him a chance to reappear in the examinations to get admitted to the third year. In his appeal, Gourav claimed he had sent a mercy application to the university's committee in October 2014, but through a notification on November 7, 2014, it was rejected and his admission was also cancelled.

He had contended that the judge had misconceived that he had to appear in 10 papers, whereas he had to appear only in five. The university , however, told the court that during the academic year 2012-13 and 2013-14, Gourav had reappeared in the failed papers of first year and second year but could not clear them and hence failed to secure the minimum credits for promotion to third year.

Reservation not advisable in certain technical posts

Super-specialty [medical] posts

‘Only merit, no quota in super-specialty posts’

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN

The Times of India 2013/07/19

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked caste-based reservations in appointments to faculty posts in AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Science), saying merit alone should count at the super-specialty level. “There were certain services and posts where either on account of the nature of duties...or the level in the hierarchy... merit alone counts,” a constitution bench said, quoting from the judgment in the Indira Sawhney case that upheld 27% quota for OBCs in central services

AIIMS faculty posts

SC rules out reservation in AIIMS faculty posts

The apex court blocked castebased reservations in appointments to faculty posts in AIIMS saying constitution benches of the court had warned against reservation at super-specialty level.

“There were certain services and posts where either on account of the nature of duties attached to them or the level in the hierarchy at which they stood, merit alone counts. In such, situations, it cannot be advised to provide for reservations,” a five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S S Nijjar, Ranajan Gogoi, M Y Eqbal and Vikramjit Sen said quoting from the judgment by a nine-judge bench delivered in Indira Sawhney case.

The court quoted from Indira Sawhney verdict: “... in respect of certain posts, application of rule of reservation may not be advisable in regard to various technical posts including posts in super specialty in medicine, engineering and other scientific and technical posts.”

‘SC/ST woman to retain tag after marriage’

Swati Deshpande | TNN

From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009 2010

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday held that a woman belonging to the SC/ST category by birth would retain her caste even after marrying a man who was from an upper caste.

The bench of Justices B H Marlapalle, Abhay Oka and R Y Ganoo said that a woman would not lose her caste by marriage and it did not change to that of her husband’s. In fact, as ruled by a Constitution bench of the SC,

‘‘Caste is acquired by birth and does not undergo a change by virtue of marriage or even adoption.’’ The apex court had also laid down that a woman from a general category married to a SC/ST man would also not automatically gain voluntary mobility into the backward caste.

The ruling came in a case of where a man and his family members were seeking protection from arrest last year in a criminal case filed against them under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for abusing his SC wife.

Quotas for Muslims

From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009

Andhra HC strikes down Muslim quota

Says Law Based On Dubious Data May Spur Conversions

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

A seven-judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court headed by chief justice A R Dave on Monday struck down as “unsustainable” the state law providing 4% reservation in educational institutions and jobs for 15 Muslim groups deemed backward by the state government.

The bench described findings of the AP Backward Classes Commission — on which the quota law had been based — as ‘unscientific’. Within hours of the verdict, chief minister K Rosaiah said his government would move Supreme Court in appeal and vowed to restore the ‘AP Reservation in Favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007’.

In a 5-2 majority ruling, the court found that the Commission neither evolved any criteria nor published these before inviting objections. It had merely stated that it had followed the two criteria evolved by the Mandal Commission for identification of Socially Economic Backward Classes (SEBC) among non-Hindu community.

Chief Justice Dave, speaking for himself and Justices A Gopala Reddy, V Eswaraiah and G Raghuram, said the enactment was religion-specific and potentially encouraged conversions and was thus unsustainable. The bench said the commission relied excessively on data collated by the Anthropological Survey of India, which was meant for determining the profile of the Indian population and not for deciding on affirmative action for Muslims.

‘Panel’s approach is non-scientific’

Hyderabad: The AP Backward Classes Commission’s procedural error in determining Muslim backwardness was fatal to its report and its consequent recommendation, the state’s high court said while striking down affirmative action for the community.

‘‘The fast track approach adopted by the commission was nothing but a non-scientific method,’’ Justice Dave said. It was neither ‘‘legal nor sustainable’’, he declared. The action of the panel was also criticized for its reliance on recommendations made by P S Krishnan, a retired IAS officer deputed by the state to conduct the survey on the commission’s behalf. The appointment of Krishnan is ‘protanto invalid’, the bench said and faulted the panel for relying on his findings.

Echoing the majority view in a separate judgment, Justice Meena Kumari said the investigation by the panel was not based on real facts, data or analysis and was without proper survey. The commission limited its survey to six districts in three days, she said.

Justice Prakash Rao aired the minority view holding that the bench was not called upon to adjudicate the list but was only required to answer a legal reference. He said that the government had some data before it on which it acted and thus could not be faulted. Justice DSR Varma said he did not agree with the majority view and would give his rea2sons shortly. The Advocate General sought suspension of the order which was rejected by the bench.

The Andhra government has long struggled to provide quotas for Muslims, who were first given reservation in July 2004, a month after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy came to power.

Reconverted SCs entitled to all the benefits

The Times of India

Feb 28 2015

SC: Reconverted Dalits must get quota benefits

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that if a person with Dalit ancestry reconverts to Hinduism, he would get back his caste status and benefit of reservation. “A person who is born to Christian parents who had converted to Christianity from Scheduled Caste Hindu can avail the benefit of caste certificate after his embracing Hinduism, subject to other qualifications,“ a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda ruled on Thursday .

“There cannot be any soundness of logic that he cannot avail the similar benefit because his grandparents were converted and he was born to parents who were Christian,“ said Justice Misra, who authored the judgment for the bench.

The bench laid down a three-fold criteria for a re-converted person to get back his caste status and consequential benefits accruing to that caste for employment and education.The only caveat is that on reconversion, the dalit community must accept himher as a member of the community .

“There must be absolutely clear cut proof that he belongs to the caste that has been recognized by the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950; there has been reconversion to the original religion to which the parents and earlier generations had belonged; and there has to be evidence establishing the acceptance by the community ,“ the bench said.

The case was related to the refusal of Scheduled Caste certificate to one K P Manu, whose great grandfather belonged to Hindu Pulaya community in Kerala. Manu's father had embraced Christianity and took a new name, Verghese, and married Mariam, who earlier belonged to the Hindu Ezhava community and had converted to Christianity.

See also

Scheduled castes