SC rules out applicability of US standards to test quota law

The Supreme Court has ruled out the applicability of American standards to review the law providing 27 per cent quota for OBCs in central educational institutions, saying "the gamut of affirmative action in India is fully supported by Constitutional provisions". The five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan was unanimous that the US practice of putting "suspect legislation" to "strict scrutiny" cannot be applied to examine the Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act enabling the government to make law providing reservation. "We have not applied the principles of suspect legislation and we have been following the doctrine that every legislation passed by Parliament is presumed to be Constitutionally valid unless otherwise proved," the CJI said, and whose view was shared by Justice R V Raveendran. On the same lines, Justices Arijit Pasayat and C K Thakker said, "while interpreting the Constitutional provisions, foreign decisions do not have great determinative value ... the strict scrutiny test is not applicable and indepth scrutiny has to be made to decide constitutionality or otherwise of a statute". Justice Dalveer, who was more categorical in refusing the argument, said, "the decisions of foreign country are not binding on Indian courts. Indian Courts have not adopted American standards of review". He held that for challenging the law providing OBC quota, the principles enunciated by the US Supreme Court are not strictly applicable as "cases decided by other countries are not binding but do have great persuasive value". Justice Pasayat said "it is worth putting in perspective that difference between reservations in India and affirmative action in America is that the former talks about extirpating caste where as the latter is interested primarily in representing races". He said, "Americans believe in race representation and not in quotas and in not sacrificing standards for social justice." Justice Bhandari said US judgements may provide broad guidelines as India and America has similar problem vis-a-vis caste and race. "The caste system is peculiar to this country (India). Perhaps the entire society has been divided on the basis of caste. This social problem can be compared to some extent with that of American society. In the US, the problem of racial discrimination has existed for centuries." "The cases of affirmative action decided in the US are relevant. They show us how that society has dealt with the problem of racial discrimination," Justice Bhandari said

"Loved reading this piece by Kalpana.S ?
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