RESERVATION - 2006 - Indian Social Institute

New Supreme Court interim order on SC/ST quota (25)NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered that 10 per cent of the State-wise Central quota bereserved for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates in postgraduate medical admissions for theacademic year 2006-2007. The ongoing counselling should be held only for the rest of the seats, ruled athree-judge Bench of the Court comprising Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, Justice A. R. Lakshmanan andJustice S. H. Kapadia. It passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by 14 doctors challenging themethod of calculation of seats reserved for the SCs/STs. The petitioners contended that as per the apexcourt verdict 50 per cent of the postgraduate medical seats were reserved under the all-India quota and 50per cent under the State quota. The judgment made it clear that the 50 per cent all-India quota would becalculated after deducting the number of seats set apart for the reserved categories. (For example, if thereare 100 seats, the seats meant for the SCs/STs will be deducted and the remaining seats divided into the50 per cent all-India quota and 50 per cent Central quota.) Contrary to this judgment, the admissionbulletin this year said the SC/ST quota would be calculated at the 50 per cent seats available afterdeducting the 50 per cent all-India quota. As a result, the number of seats reserved for SCs/STs camedown, the petitioners said. They sought a declaration that such a calculation was invalid andunconstitutional and urged provision of reservation in keeping with the Court judgment. The Bench saidthat as per the earlier judgment the quota was increased to 50 per cent. "Now the question is whether areservation of 22.5 per cent is to be made in the State quota or in the Central quota. We direct that the 10per cent, subject-wise Central quota be reserved subject to the final decision." (The Hindu 27/4/06)SC wonders why no data on representation outside category (25)NEW DELHI, APRil 27: As the reservation issue gains momentum, the Supreme Court today wonderedwhether the Centre or states maintained any records regarding number of persons from the deprivedsections who got representation in the state’s services without availing the benefit of reservation. ‘‘Whichgovernment keeps any data on how many are getting representation without reservation. I don’t think thestate or Centre is keeping any such data so that any group can be taken out of reservation,’’ observedChief Justice of India Justice Y K Sabharwal, who was part of a five-judge bench hearing petitionschallenging the validity of 77th, 82nd, 83rd and 85th amendments to the Constitution. The amendments,besides giving Constitutional mandate to reservations in promotions, also empowered the government tolower the qualifying marks for SC and ST candidates in any examination for state services. The CJI’sremarks came after senior counsel P P Rao appearing for some of the respondents—reserved categoryengineers—contended that reservation was necessary till the Constitutional mandate of adequaterepresentation was achieved, both in the individual fields and the state as a whole. ‘‘No government isdoing any charity for these people. They are only carrying out a Constitutional mandate,’’ he said. Whenthe court asked what if there was adequate representation in any one unit, Rao answered that onceadequate reservation was achieved for any field, reservation could be done away with. Appearing for thepetitioners senior counsel Harish Salve, Rajiv Dhavan and L M Singhvi claimed that the amendmentswere intended to overcome earlier SC verdicts that went against it. (Indian Exp 28/4/06)Medical students threaten nationwide strike (25)NEW DELHI: Students from five leading medical colleges of Delhi on Thursday announced that they werecalling off their agitation "partially". The decision came after Union Human Resource DevelopmentMinister Arjun Singh told them that he would talk to them after the upcoming May elections about initiatinga debate on the proposed move to provide 27 per cent reservation to Other Backward Classes in Centraluniversities and other institutions of higher learning. "We have been assured by the HRD Minister thatafter the elections are over on May 11, he would initiate a national debate and also discuss the issue withthe Prime Minister. We are calling off the agitation following the assurance.However, in case theGovernment goes back on its word, we will go on a nationwide strike," warned a representative of thestudents, adding that a memorandum was also presented to the Union Minister during the day demandinga rollback of the controversial proposal. While work at all Delhi hospitals returned to normal thereafter, theundergraduate students of the five leading medical colleges have decided to continue boycotting classesto keep up the pressure on the Government. The HRD Minister had called student representatives fromthe five colleges — Maulana Azad Medical College, Lady Hardinge Medical College, All-India Institute ofMedical Sciences, University College of Medical Sciences and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College — for