SC asks govt to explain 27.5% quota for OBCs

NEW DELHI: In a development that does not augur well for UPA government and quota enthusiasts within it, the Supreme Court on Monday sent a notice to the centre asking it explain the decision to provide 27.5% reservation for OBCs in centrally-funded educational institutions.

The notice to the government comes close on the heels of the Supreme Court order in the Ninth Schedule ��� a judgement that is sure to become the reference point for testing the legality of quota laws. The SC had earlier asked the government to provide empirical evidence to substantiate its claim on the OBC population. The National Sample Survey had said that the group makes up for 32% and not 52% as earlier believed.

The Supreme Court, which admitted a petition challenging the government order providing reservation for OBCs, granted three week to the centre to respond to the same.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Harish Salve told a bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S H Kapadia that though the bill has been passed by both houses of parliament, the official notification was awaited and whenever the notification providing for reservation is issued, it would be challenged.

The government has already announced that it is going to implement the policy of reservation providing for 27.5% reservation to OBCs from 2007-2008. There is also plan to provide similar reservation in unaided institutions.

While the apex court has already issued notices on a petition challenging the order of HRD minister Arjun Singh and the government, in its counter, has justified caste-based reservation, the government is yet to place the Veerappa Moily committee report before this court as directed earlier.

Incidentally, the data collected by the Moily panel had shown that OBCs are not quite disadvantaged compared to the general categories. While in health indicators, the status of OBCs was only slightly different than that of people belonging to the `general��� category, the landing-holding pattern of OBCs and the `general��� category people showed only a slight variation.

The draft report of the panel even argued for keeping the creamy layer in the OBC out of the quota ambit. ``In order to ensure that the benefits of reservations accrued to all income groups of OBCs from the rural areas and to all income groups of this category other than the top two income groups from the urban areas, it is desirable to either exclude the top two income groups of urban OBCs, or at least give them access in the last resort, giving the right of way to all other OBCs,������ the draft report had said.

But political compulsions and stout resistance from the pro-quota lobby, comprising planning commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar, UGC chairman S K Thorat and the Bhopal-based national judicial academy director Mohan Gopal saw the panel deciding to go by the Mandal commission figures and skip the contentious issue completely.