ABSTRACT:
The thorn in the path or the rose of opportunity, reservation in our country can mean different things for all sorts of people. The essence of reservation provided in our constitution claims special positive provisions for Women, Other Backward Class, Scheduled caste, Scheduled Tribes, Economically Weaker Sections and disabled persons. Surely, the need to empower them can be considered as a necessity however, it must also be ensured that their growth shall not hinder the growth opportunities for others. Taking into consideration the recent Maharashtra State Reservation Bill passed by the Maharashtra State Assembly which now ensures 10% reservations for Marathas in educational institutes and government jobs, it is unsure how positive the impact is. The middle class has grown disproportionately with the economic growth in India. There is a higher requirement of better life status which is unfortunately not being met. This is diverting their frustration towards its competitors in a not so positive manner. This paper delves into the necessity, advantages and drawbacks of the practice of reservation offering a comprehensive analysis of its implications on ensuring fairness and integrity in public educational institutions. Understanding the intricacies of the Indian Constitution is vital for comprehending its significance and potential impact on addressing the challenges of reservations.
KEYWORDS:
Reservation, Positive discrimination, Empowering, Indian Constitution
INTRODUCTION:
The reservation policy in India has been controversial since its very conception. The aim of the reservation policy at its origin might have been providing protection to the weak however it harbours very different feelings in the Twenty – first Century. Yes, there have certainly been cases like Achyutananda Das who became the first Scheduled caste IAS officer in the year 1950. But on the other hand, there are still thousands of students and aspirants losing their seats to Socially weaker classes merely because of the policy.
This study discusses the constitutional provisions regarding the reservation policy and the surrounding disputes. India’s reservation policy is one of the world’s most ambitious affirmative action policies. The policy is designed to provide opportunities for historically marginalized groups, such as Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Scheduled Castes (SCs). The policy is rooted in the caste system, a social hierarchy that has existed in India for thousands of years. (1). The reservation policy provides the above-mentioned people a special chance with special eligibility criteria to enrol themselves into educational institutes. The reservation policy also aids the above-mentioned people in getting an equal opportunity for employment in the government sector or public jobs. One of its main objectives was to provide an equivalent platform to all, irrespective of their caste, to promote backward classes and most importantly to rectify the horrific past and injustice against the backward classes in India.
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF RESERVATION SYSTEM IN INDIA:
“Brahaminas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras” are the four classes of Hindu caste system, also known as the Varna system.
- Brahmins: Scholars of Vedas, priests or educators.
- Kshatriyas: People of Ruling Category, administration or warrior.
- Vaishyas: Agricultural people, farm-oriented people or sale merchant.
- Shudras: Labourers or servants.
This has been an ancient division amongst mankind since the earliest known civilisation Mohenjo-Daro built during the 26th Century BCE. The relevant use of these words can be traced back to the Vedas and the Upanishads. This division amongst “purushas” created an invisible barrier between people and opportunity which still stands to this very day.
Even back then no Shudras or sons of Shudras were allowed to read or even listen to the Vedas. Might one hear to the Vedas being spoken, it shall be considered to have committed an offence and shall be punished for it. For 2000 years, Shudras were not allowed a right to education. This can be considered as one of the beginnings of such discrimination. These roles and jobs and lifestyles and characteristics can be traced back to being mentioned in the infamous “Manusmriti” which contradictorily is one of the major sources of Hindu law but also was burnt by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Thus, the discrimination continued to grow, women were considered as the weaker sex and secondary citizens, people belonging to SCs and STs castes were considered to be of low birth and were denied basic human jobs and education for centuries. They were not allowed to step into temples to pray, nor were allowed to enter Gurukuls or training academies to access education.
However, it was not until the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950 that the reservation policy was institutionalised to promote social justice and equality. It was extremely difficult for them to stand up for themselves until the Former Minister of Law and Justice, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar changed the perspective of people from looking down upon them to lending them a helping hand for their upliftment. The very practice of provision of reservation was initiated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar with his initial motive being “upliftment of the weakest”.
Throughout history, we can see many incidents which lead to formation of the current reservation policies. In the year 1882, the Hunter Commission was established and Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule demanded free and compulsory education for all citizens, as well as equal opportunity of employment in government offices. In the state of Kolhapur, a notification in the year A fifty percent service reservation was created in 1902 for residents who were considered backward. This was the first notice in India establishing a QUOTA for the welfare of the underprivileged.
The Indian Councils Act in the year 1909, also known as the Morley Minto Reform only authorised a small minority of Indians with property ownership and education to stand for elections. In the 1910 legislative council elections, 135 Indians were elected as representatives throughout India. The 1909 Morley-Minto reforms also increased the cap on membership of the Imperial Legislative Council and in the provincial councils of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. The reforms also introduced the provision of separate electorates for Muslims. The Indian Constitution was established on January 26, 1950. State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan that admission must not be denied on the basis of caste, religion or sex. The case was a landmark ruling on caste-based reservations in India, this resulted in the Constitution’s First Amendment. The ruling of the Madras High Court was upheld by the Supreme Court. To overturn a 1927 Government Order that reserved seats in government jobs and college seats based on caste. The Mandal Commission was set up on 1st January 1979 by The Mandal Commission was tasked by the government of the time, led by Prime Minister Morarji Desai, with identifying India’s socially and educationally backward castes and exploring the possibility of using reservations to combat discrimination and caste disparity.
Eleven criteria were created by the commission to determine which backward classes were referred to as “Other Backward Classes,” or OBCs. The standards fall into three categories: social, economic, and educational. The Commission was led by Member of Parliament B P Mandal, and on December 31, 1980, the Commission delivered its findings to the President. In parliament in 1990, the then-prime minister, V P Singh, promised to implement the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. The Mandal Commission decided in 1992 that OBCs should be given preference for 27% of government employment because they made up roughly 52% of India’s population. The Supreme Court upheld this decision, but it also declared that being a member of a caste alone was not a sign of social or educational backwardness.
RESEARCH METHOD:
The research for this descriptive paper came from secondary sources that provided a thorough examination of the operations and roles of public sector jobs as well as educational institutions. Secondary research is a research method that uses data collected by others, using data that already exists. It consists of steps like establishing the topic, gathering sufficient data, comparison of data from multiple sources and analyzing the findings. Secondary sources of information like newspapers, online sources such as websites, articles and research papers including e-newspaper, statutes and guidelines from the government are used for this research.
MANDATE FOR THE RESERVATION POLICY:
Reservation and Constitutional provisions unique to S.C. / S.T. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe are specified in Article 366(24) and Article 366(25), respectively. Articles 15(4) and 15(5) reserve places in educational institutions, respectively, and 16(4) and 16(4a) reserve places for appointments or positions, promotions with consequential seniority to any class or classes of posts, and reservations in private aided or unaided educational institutions, respectively.
Article 16(4b): Reserving unfilled positions for a given year’s openings excludes them from the 50% reservation cap on the total number of vacancies for that year; Article 330: Reservation of seats in the house of representatives; Article 243 T: Reservation of seats in municipalities; and Article 243 DR: Reservation of seats in panchayats Article 332: Seat reservations in the state legislatures; Article 334 Seat reservations in the house of representatives and state legislatures will end on 24.1.2010; Article 335: Requirements for appointments to positions and services, as well as a relaxation of qualifying standards for exams, etc. Article 341(1) Specification of Scheduled Tribes; Article 338 National Commission for Scheduled Castes; Article 338 says A National Commissions for Scheduled Tribes.
This bill had expired as of the time of this article’s most recent update. Article 14: No State in India may refuse any individual equal protection under the law or equality before the law. Article 15, which forbids discrimination, additionally has a provision that permits
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as well as any other socially and educationally disadvantaged segments of individuals, to receive preferential treatment from the federal and state governments.
Article 15 (1) State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, cast, sex, place of birth. Article 15(2) Constitution makes the accessibility to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment, wells, tanks, Bathing ghats, roads and Reservation in India other places of public use which are fully or partly funded by the Government to all people belonging to any caste, creed, race, sex or whatever.
The State may provide specific provisions for women and children under Article 15(3). However, the government would have been accused of discrimination in court if it had done so. Thus, in order to ensure that any special provisions made by the state for the advancement of any disadvantaged class of citizens—whether educational, economic, or social—could not be contested as discriminatory, the government introduced the first amendment to the constitution in 1951, adding new clauses 15(4) and 15(5) that would later serve as the cornerstones of India’s reservation policy. According to Articles 15(4) and 15(5), the state was able to create specific measures for the advancement of any citizen class that was socially and educationally backward as well as for the SCs and STs.
Although the 15 is broad in its application, Article 16 places special emphasis on opportunity equality. Article 16: No individual shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of opportunity. Subsequently, this article lists seven categories—religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, domicile, or any combination of these seven—that make discrimination illegal in India.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
There are many landmark judgements which have ensured a win to the Constitutional policy, here are few of those judicial decisions:
Indra Sawhney & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. (1992) () – this might be one of the most important cases in our history,
Held: Subclassification of backward classes into more backward classes is allowed under Article 16(4). For the purposes of reservation, creamy layers (individuals with advanced social status) may and should be kept apart from backward classes in accordance with Article 16(4). The percentage of reservations cannot be more than 50%. This limit should not be exceeded, even when applying the carry forward rule, which fills open positions in the next year. Promotions are not to include reservations.
R. K. Sabharwal v. State of Punjab (1995) – The Supreme Court ruled that the number of jobs in the cadre should be used to calculate reservation, rather than the number of open positions. The fundamental idea behind post-based reservation is that the number of positions in a cadre that are filled through reservations for any given category should match the quota that is set forth for that category.
Ajit Singh v. State of Punjab (1999) – In this historic case, it was decided that the 77th, 81st, 82nd, and 85th Constitutional Amendments were sustained. The Court would invalidate any excessive reservation regulations that were causing reverse discrimination, according to the doctrine of directed power, which established three governing principles and required the maintenance of overall administrative efficiency. The five-judge bench in the M. Nagaraj case identified three controlling considerations to prohibit over reservation, which are as follows: There must be no exceeding the 50% ceiling limit (quantitative factor). A reservation in the promotion must have a creamy layer exclusion (qualitative factor). By collecting the required amount, the state must demonstrate that there is in fact underrepresentation and backwardness.
M. Nagaraj v. Union of India (2006) – In this historic case, it was decided that the 77th, 81st, 82nd, and 85th Constitutional Amendments were sustained. The Court would invalidate any excessive reservation regulations that were causing reverse discrimination, according to the doctrine of directed power, which established three governing principles and required the maintenance of overall administrative efficiency. The five-judge bench in the M. Nagaraj cases identified three controlling considerations to prohibit over reservation, which are as follows: There must be no exceeding the 50% ceiling limit (quantitative factor). A reservation in the promotion must have a creamy layer exclusion (qualitative factor). By collecting the required amount, the state must demonstrate that there is in fact underrepresentation and backwardness.
Jarnail Singh v. Lachhmi Narain Gupta (2018) – It was decided that According to the ruling in the M. Nagaraj case, states are not required to gather measurable data in order to demonstrate backwardness because doing so would go against the precedent set by the Indra Sawhney case. However, quantifiable data must be used to demonstrate inadequate representation. The five-judge bench in this case affirmed the creamy layer exclusion criterion for reservation in promotions for SC/Sts.
Lubna Shoukat Mujawar v. State of Maharashtra, 2024 SCC 132 – It was held that despite the fact that the doctor’s MBBS admission was secured via a fictitious OBC-Non-Creamy Layer Certificate, the Bombay High Court recently declined to annul it. The petitioner is a competent doctor, thus the court noted that denying her admittance would be a loss for the country.
SUGGESTIONS:
The Indian Government certainly has a penchant for defending the weak and ensuring justice is served for one and for all. However, justice seems to be associated with hindrance for the middle-class people. We have seen that the government has created a reservation policy for the upliftment of SC/STs and other backward classes, now even women, farmers and economically weaker sections have been added to the reservation list.
The great majority of poor and oppressed castes should receive reservation privileges. The lack of following proper protocol is prolonging backlog clauses. The government must come up with multiple positive prerogatives to ensure that the term “reservation” is shone brightly in a positive manner. Reservations are made from regular seats, not seats designated for members of underrepresented educational and economic categories. This is one of the major issues faced by people belonging to the general category. If the government adds an additional number of seats specifically for the people from economically disadvantaged classes, then it would enhance the motive of “upliftment in equity for all”. The reservation should not be for promotion, rather it should be seen as a one-time opportunity to obtain access to better education and jobs.
CONCLUSION:
Reservation should be a privilege, not a right. In conclusion, the constitutional provisions related to affirmative action policies in India reflect the country’s commitment to promoting social justice and inclusivity. However, the implementation and effectiveness of these policies are still subject to ongoing debate and scrutiny. It is essential to balance providing opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups and ensuring a fair and merit-based selection process for all.
The Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes advised that a comprehensive statute be implemented to clearly define the policy. A welfare fund can be created with its main objective being affirmative action for the economically and socially disadvantaged groups as well as every citizen. The reservation criteria in education institutes are 49.5%. Parliament follows a similar ratio. Each state has a different percentage of reservations; Maharashtra is thought to have the greatest percentage.
Much work is to be done to achieve the fairness and address the country’s deep-rooted inequalities and bias and assure the citizens proper equitable opportunities. Multiple Articles have been written in the Indian Constitution like Article 335, Article 15, Article 16, Article 17, Article 46, Article 332, etc.
This shows that measures have definitely been taken to improve the policy to aid the socially and economically disadvantaged groups. However, the general public fears that these might be temporary solutions, they may not work in the long run. Despite strong criticisms the policies for reservation continues to be an important rule for safeguarding and pushing forward the social justice. The pursuit of uplifting the weak has not been an abject failure in India. The outcasts or the socially and economically disadvantaged people are being ensured that their sadly incorrigible past is acknowledged and much needed provisions made for better opportunities for them.
BY: KARISHMA RAJPUT
COLLEGE: MODERN LAW COLLEGE