Whether reservation under quota is a Fundamental Right or not was a matter of debate many times earlier. But it seems the picture has been cleared out to a great extent through the verdict made by the Supreme Court lately.
In a recent case, the Supreme Court mentioned that the Right to Reservation is not a Fundamental Right. The court mentioned this statement refusing the petitions that were regarding 50 percent reservation of the Other Backward Classes for the UG and PG medical courses in the state Tamil Nadu.
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The bench of three judges was been led by Justice L.N. Rao. The leading judge appreciated the concerns of the political parties for helping the backward classes but also reminded the Right to Reservation is not a Fundamental Right as per the Constitution of India. Other judges on the bench were Krishna Murari and S Ravindra Bhat.
The Petition and Earlier Story
DMK, the Communist Party of India had filed the Petition against the Central. The petition was regarding offering a 50 percent reservation quota to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates under All India Quota studying in Government colleges for the courses of postgraduate medical, undergraduate medical, and dental courses for the year 2020 – 2021.
DMK has alleged that there is no reason for which the OBC reservation cannot be extended to 50% in Tamil Nadu. This petition was laid with respect to the past records of the education reservation system in Tamil Nadu. The party mentioned that in past years, OBC candidates have been highly underrepresented while getting admission in different undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma and PG diploma courses of various medical colleges under All-India-Quota seats.
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The Final Outcome
DMK came up with the petition of offering a 50 percent reservation to the OBC candidates in the medical colleges but the Supreme Court refused the petition. It mentioned that no one is authorized to claim reservation as a Fundamental Right and hence in this context, the petition cannot be accepted.
Also, the court appreciated the concerns of the party and advised them to approach Madras High Court regarding the case. The bench of three judges heard the case through video conferencing due to the current situation and has stated that there is no case taken for the petitioners for approaching the Supreme Court under Article 32.
There was another verdict earlier made by one of the judges of this bench regarding a similar case where it was mentioned that reservation cannot be considered as a Fundamental Right.
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Finally, hearing out to the advice of the Supreme Court, the petitions were withdrawn by the party and they have marched towards the Madras High Court now.
Every year a huge number of students apply for different medical colleges for various courses and only a few are able to crack through it. Reservation systems are there for various segments of people such as Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe and also other sections such as disabled, ex-servicemen, and so on. But the reservation for OBC has always remained to be a matter of debate as they are not provided much of it.
Recently, the ruling party of Tamil Nadu took out this concern and pointed out that the OBC section of the society is being underrated and hence they should be provided 50% of the reservation. The Constitution of India has provided the amendment of equality among different castes and creed but there is no such amendment about reservations. This has always remained a matter of confusion and the Supreme Court has made this clear this time with this petition that the Right to Reservation is not a Fundamental Right.
