Pune Edition, 16th Sep 2008

New Delhi: The Centre had chosen to ignore this important direction from a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court — revert all vacant 27% OBC quota seats in central educational institutions, including IITs and IIMs, to the general category.

It can no longer do so. For, the same five-judge Constitution bench of chief justice K.G. Balakrishnan and justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker, R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari on Monday asked the Centre, “Where is the confusion in this direction? It was crystal clear that the vacant OBC quota seats would go to the general category”.

On August 2, this newspaper carried a Times View saying that reserved seats going vacant should be thrown open to general category students.

The bench on Monday also reiterated its earlier order that the Centre, which appeared to be in a hurry to fill all the OBC seats, could not dilute merit by reducing the cut-off marks for backward class students much lower than that prescribed for the general category.

“If the cut-off for general category is 50% marks in the entrance examination, you cannot admit OBC candidates who have secured just 25% marks. You cannot dilute merit altogether. That is why three of the five judges on the Constitution bench had favoured a cutoff for OBC candidates — either 5% (two judges) or 10% (one judge) less than that of general candidates,” the Bench said.

The bench asked solicitor general G.E. Vahanvati to take instruction from the Centre on these two issues raised by an application seeking direction to the government for proper implementation of the OBC quota judgment. Vahanvati said he would get back to the court in two weeks on these issues with a status report on the vacancy position and the stand on cut-off marks for OBC candidates.

Appearing for the applicant, senior advocate K.K. Venugopal said there were 432 seats from the 27% OBC quota lying vacant in various IITs and IIMs and accused the Centre of not reverting them to the general category. “It is a national waste if these seats in prestigious institutions are allowed to remain vacant,” he said.

In its April 10 judgment upholding 27% OBC quota excluding the creamy layer, the bench had taken care not to dilute educational excellence for which India has made a mark in the world. Justice Pasayat, writing for himself and justice Thakker, had said, “The central government shall examine the desirability of fixing cut-off marks in respect of the candidates belonging to OBCs”.

Giving an illustration, he had said, “It can be indicated that five marks grace can be extended to such candidates below the minimum eligibility marks fixed for general category students. This will ensure that quality and merit do not suffer”.