Reservation harmful for national integrity: HC

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has taken a firm stand against the continuity of reservation in the country. "For national integration and development, it is necessary to take affirmative action to produce able and knowledgeable personalities from the deprived class, instead of expanding and abusing the process of reservation or keeping its continuity for all times to come, at the cost of efficiency enshrined in the constitution of India,'' said a division bench of Justices Devi Prasad Singh and VD Chaturvedi. The observation came on a writ petition filed by the UP irrigation departments officials, Dharam Pal Singh Chauhan and another. Chauhan's counsel, senior advocate SK Kalia had contended that in the department there were two posts of engineer-in-chief. One was occupied by the general candidate, and the other was filled up by the state government by a scheduled caste (SC) candidate on August 27. Since according to rules the reservation to SC was limited to 21 per cent the promotion of SC candidate on one of the two posts amounted to 50 per cent, the same being against law, was arbitrary and illegal, argued Kalia. Defending the promotion, additional advocate general, JN Mathur, chief standing counsel Devendra Upadhyay and PN Gupta contended in the light of a government order of March 8, 1973, that in case there was one post even then that could be reserved for SC candidate. The bench, however ruled that since the sanctioned strength of the post of engineer-in-chief was two and the quota of scheduled caste was 21 per cent under the act, one out of two posts could not be reserved for a SC candidate. Accordingly, the court set aside the promotion and directed the state government to proceed to fill the vacancy in view of this observation. Delivering the bench said that the abuse of constitutional power in the matter of reservation in any way is against the constitutional spirit, shall cause reverse discrimination and may be counter-productive and divisive in due course of time which should be checked by enforcing the rule of law in its letter and spirit. The HC said, "Reservation may be provided only keeping in view the inadequacy of representation, backwardness of class, necessity for reservation, judging the adverse effect, without compromising on efficiency of administration and excellency, keeping in view the constitutional mandate.'' Subscribing to the view of the supreme court, while delivering the judgment, Justice Singh has said there should be a review of the reservation process at an interval of 5-10 years to find out the necessity for its continuance but it appears that instead of reviewing the necessity of reservation, even after a period of 60 years of Independence, when a new generation has taken over the national scene and has got no concern with the past exploitation, reservation has become an electoral issue an is being used as a vote capturing device. Holding the reservation process responsible for creating fissure in the Indian society, the bench expressed its annoyance that a new form of leadership has raised head based on caste, creed and religion raising slogans amounting to abuse of reservation process against the constitutional mandate. The high court showed its anguish that in last 60 years, casteism, corruption and communalism has increased manifold in the country. "No effective effort has been taken by the constitutional functionaries to develop the sense of national feeling which may unite the countrymen into one thread,'' the bench said adding that it has taken notice that sometimes elections are contested in a planned manner on the basis of caste, creed and religion. Supporting Sardar Vallabbhai Patel's view against the expansion of reservation, the judges quoted his words. "Separate electorate given to the Muslims has done irreparable damage to the cause of India; this was done deliberately as a policy of divide-and-rule and we are paying dearly the price for this act of mischief. Let us hope that all communities will realise in course of time that it is more in the interest of the country and of the community as a whole to fall in line with the general national regeneration of the country as a whole.'' Giving impetus to a nationwide debate on the policy of continuing reservation in the country, the judges reminded that even Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the framer of the constitution had suggested the provision of reservation for first ten years only but it has been extended from time to time.

"Loved reading this piece by Prakash Yedhula?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"

Join our Telegram group

Join our Whatsapp group