Ambedkar lesson for JNU & DU in court
OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, July 27: The country would not have had a B.R. Ambedkar and
its "brilliant Constitution" if he was denied college admission over
low marks, the Supreme Court said today, criticising JNU and Delhi
University for failing to fill OBC quotas.
"The minimum pass mark those days was 35 per cent. Dr Ambedkar had got
37 per cent marks. If you had denied him admission at the threshold,
would you have had a Dr Ambedkar and a brilliant Constitution?" a
two-judge bench said while hearing a plea against the OBC reservation
policies of the two universities.
OBC reservations at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have never in
the past three years touched the 27 per cent mandated under a 1993
central act.
In 2008-09, it reserved only 12 per cent seats, excluding the creamy
layer that was expected to compete in the general category. While only
9.93 per cent got in through the quota, another 10.33 per cent came in
on merit. JNU then showed its total OBC reservation for the year as
20.26 per cent.
Delhi University (DU) has been giving a 10 per cent relaxation in
marks to OBC candidates over the general category percentage but with
cut-offs touching almost 100 per cent, OBC students are expected to
get a minimum of 90 per cent to get into some of its elite colleges.
To justify this, DU has fallen back on a 2008 Supreme Court judgment
that said the difference between the general cut-off and backward
cut-off should not be more than 10 per cent. The aim was to balance
the needs of the weaker sections with considerations of merit.
As a result of the cut-off mechanism, effective OBC reservation in DU
has been in single digits, virtually nullifying the central act.
Both universities have been diverting the vacant OBC seats to the
general category, something the top court had said earlier they could
do.
But at today's hearing, Justice R.V. Raveendran, sitting alongside
Justice A.K. Patnaik, suggested the merit argument was being stretched
too far. "Let us not harp only on merit. Equality is only equality
between equals, not unequals. Some push is necessary for some, whether
some like it or dislike it," said Raveendran, who was part of a
five-judge bench that had in 2008 upheld the 27 per cent quota.
To say general candidates have 90 per cent and no OBC students with
less than 80 per cent will get in is "very "unreasonable", Raveendran
said.
"Institutions are required to help them (weaker sections). Money gives
you access to better coaching, better standard of living. So more
marks does not mean more clever. You (the varsities) must take
material that is not the best and make them the best. You cannot
insist that you will take the best," he said, appearing to suggest
high scores could come from having had facilities weaker sections
often don't have.
The strong pro-quota observations by the judge and his presence on the
bench that had upheld the OBC quota law prompted a response from a
group of anti-reservation students. P.P. Rao, the group's lawyer,
insisted the judges send back the matter to Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia
to be placed before another bench.
Rao kept emphasising the minority judgment of Justice Dalveer Bhandari
in the five-judge bench judgment which had warned against a too large
gap between cutoffs for general students and those from weaker
sections. He implied that another judge (Justice Raveendran) could not
interpret Bhandari's words. Justice Raveendran then recused himself
from the matter, ensuring the debate remained inconclusive.
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