SC sets Oct 31st as deadline to allot seats to general category

Supreme Court has set 31st October as the deadline to allot vacant seats to general category students in centrally aided institutions after OBC quota implementation. Five member Constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice G Balakrishnan asked the government to fix the cut off marks limit of OBC candidates lesser by 10 percent as compared to general candidates. "You can file a fresh petition," a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said when anti-quota petitioners alleged that the Union Cabinet's decision to raise the income was aimed at defeating the apex court verdict on 27 percent quota for OBC in central educational institutions. The remarks of the Bench, which on 10th April upheld the validity of the controversial law, came when senior advocate K K Venugopal described the UPA government's decision in this regard as "disturbing". The Bench, which clarified that the difference in cut-off marks for OBC candidates and General Category students will be not more than 10 per cent for admission under the quota law, was told that raising the upper level of income ceiling for the creamy layer will benefit the "high class OBCs". "The Cabinet decided to mop up all the vacancies under the OBC quota for high class OBC so that all seats go to them. This will defeat the motive of the quota judgement," Venugopal submitted before the Bench, also comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari. The senior advocate said Cabinet's decision was arbitrary as the apex court last year had set aside the report of a Commission recommending raising upto Rs 3 lakh the upper limit of annual income for the creamy layer. "When the Supreme Court has held as unjustified the raising of the income ceiling to Rs 3 lakh for the creamy layer how can it be Rs 4 lakh within a year," Venugopal said referring to the 23rd February, 2007 verdict of the apex court. The court had set aside the report of Justice K K Narendran Commission appointed by the Kerala Government. The Narendran Commission was appointed by the state government after the Supreme court had accepted the report of another Commission of Justice K J Joseph that had recommended Rs 2.5 lakh annual income as the upper limit for the creamy layer. Venugopal said that the claim by the Kerala government that there was no creamy layer among the backward classes was struck down by the apex court. The discussion on the creamy layer started after the Bench finally arrived at the decision that instead of 10 marks the difference in cut-off marks between OBC candidates and General category cannot be more than 10 per cent. The court said that the seats remaining vacant after the implementation of the 27 per cent OBC quota cannot be carried forward and that all the seats have to be filled by end of October. The court disagreed with the Centre's stand that the unfilled OBC seats can be accumulated for three years before being alloted to General Category. "The vacant seats cannot be filled in a staggered manner," the Bench said adding "how can educational seats be carried forward". Solicitor General G E Vahanvati said the Centre will abide by the decision of the court. The Bench on 15th September had observed that huge difference in the cut-off marks would be "counter-productive" to the excellence of the educational institutions. The anti-quota petitioners had drawn the attention of the bench that even after the implementation of the law- the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in admission) seats have remained vacant and there was a confusion over it. The court is also seized of another controversial issue concerning the 10th April judgement as anti-quota petitioners have contended that the majority verdict has set a benchmark that a graduate cannot be considered educationally backward. This aspect had reached the apex court after Calcutta High Court had stayed the implementation of the 27 per cent quota for them in Central educational institutions. However, on 16th May a Bench headed by the CJI had stayed the High Court order and admissions had started on the condition that it will be provisionally subject to the final outcome in the matter. The apex court had stayed all proceedings relating to OBC quota that were pending in the High Courts of Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay and issued notices to those petitioners, including Delhi-based Youth for Equality, on the Centre's petition seeking transfer of those matters to the apex court.

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