Bhandari opposes it in unaided institutions
The dissenting judgement from Justice Dalveer Bhandari said imposing reservation in private unaided educational institutions will be illegal and violative of basic structure of Constitution as it adversely affects their academic standards.
By Sanjay K Singh, TNN |
NEW DELHI: The dissenting judgement from Justice Dalveer Bhandari said imposing reservation in private unaided educational institutions will be illegal and violative of basic structure of Constitution as it adversely affects their academic standards. However, the other judges of the five judge Constitution Bench did not express any opinion on the issue and left it open ended.
���Imposing reservation on unaided institutions violates the basic structure by obliterating citizens��� 19(1)(G) right to carry on an occupation. Unaided entities, whether they are educational institutions or private corporations, cannot be regulated out of existence when they are providing a public service like education. That is what reservation would do. That is an unreasonable restriction. When you do not take a single paisa of public money, you cannot be subjected to such restriction. The 93rd Amendment���s reference to unaided institutions must be severed,��� said Justice Bhandari while justifying his stance.
Justice Bhandari said the 93rd Amendment���s imposition of reservation on unaided institutions has abrogated Article 19(1)(G), a basic feature of the Constitution, in violation of our Constitution���s basic structure. ���Therefore, I sever the 93rd Amendment���s reference to ���unaided��� institutions as ultra vires of the Constitution���.
He said that the quota system will create problems for the unaided educational institutions in ways more than one. ���The academic standards will suffer; it will be difficult to attract and retain good faculty; the incentive to establish a first rate unaided institution will diminished; and the global reputation of our unaided institutions will be severely compromised.
Elaborating the fall in the academic standards, Justice Bhandari said that once the state tells them whom to teach, standards of excellence will suffer. This is because those institutions will no longer be able to admit the highest-scoring students. As good as some of our institutions are, they do not teach blank slates.
The best universities are the best, in part, because they attract the best students. The same can be said for almost any organisation. In the case of higher education, the universities that admit the best will likely churn out the best. The precise extent to which the university made the best so good cannot be qualified. The point is that universities alone cannot produce qualified job candidates. Forced to admit students with lower marks, the university���s final product will not be as strong.
Second, reservations weaken the incentive to establish unaided institutions: if the State usurps the right to select students, would one still spend the time and money to establish an unaided institution, asked Justice Bhandari.
Third, those inclined to teach the brightest students have even less of a reason to leave private sector jobs for the teaching profession or to join the profession in the first place.
���Brightest��� would come with an asterisk. They would be the brightest available under the Government���s reservation scheme. These potential teachers may ask themselves: how will I teach a class in which half the students are advanced relative to the other half? In many institutions, the shortage of top-rate faculty will only get worse, said Justice Bhandari.
Fourth, reservations may have a negative impact on students seeking employment in the burgeoning knowledge economy. Recruiters have begun to trickle into campuses. They hail from domestic as well as international entities, and they too may take note of reservations in unaided institutions. The effect on educators, from the top down, would be felt, observed Justice Bhandari.
���Imposing reservation on unaided institutions violates the basic structure by obliterating citizens��� 19(1)(G) right to carry on an occupation. Unaided entities, whether they are educational institutions or private corporations, cannot be regulated out of existence when they are providing a public service like education. That is what reservation would do. That is an unreasonable restriction. When you do not take a single paisa of public money, you cannot be subjected to such restriction. The 93rd Amendment���s reference to unaided institutions must be severed,��� said Justice Bhandari while justifying his stance.
Justice Bhandari said the 93rd Amendment���s imposition of reservation on unaided institutions has abrogated Article 19(1)(G), a basic feature of the Constitution, in violation of our Constitution���s basic structure. ���Therefore, I sever the 93rd Amendment���s reference to ���unaided��� institutions as ultra vires of the Constitution���.
He said that the quota system will create problems for the unaided educational institutions in ways more than one. ���The academic standards will suffer; it will be difficult to attract and retain good faculty; the incentive to establish a first rate unaided institution will diminished; and the global reputation of our unaided institutions will be severely compromised.
Elaborating the fall in the academic standards, Justice Bhandari said that once the state tells them whom to teach, standards of excellence will suffer. This is because those institutions will no longer be able to admit the highest-scoring students. As good as some of our institutions are, they do not teach blank slates.
The best universities are the best, in part, because they attract the best students. The same can be said for almost any organisation. In the case of higher education, the universities that admit the best will likely churn out the best. The precise extent to which the university made the best so good cannot be qualified. The point is that universities alone cannot produce qualified job candidates. Forced to admit students with lower marks, the university���s final product will not be as strong.
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Second, reservations weaken the incentive to establish unaided institutions: if the State usurps the right to select students, would one still spend the time and money to establish an unaided institution, asked Justice Bhandari.
Third, those inclined to teach the brightest students have even less of a reason to leave private sector jobs for the teaching profession or to join the profession in the first place.
���Brightest��� would come with an asterisk. They would be the brightest available under the Government���s reservation scheme. These potential teachers may ask themselves: how will I teach a class in which half the students are advanced relative to the other half? In many institutions, the shortage of top-rate faculty will only get worse, said Justice Bhandari.
Fourth, reservations may have a negative impact on students seeking employment in the burgeoning knowledge economy. Recruiters have begun to trickle into campuses. They hail from domestic as well as international entities, and they too may take note of reservations in unaided institutions. The effect on educators, from the top down, would be felt, observed Justice Bhandari.
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