Youth for Equality Movement

Youth For Equality wishes you a new year full of Joy and Prosperity.

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Youth For Equality Wishes you a happy Diwali.

May God bless you to fight against Injustice and to save this nation from further division.

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TNN 14 October 2009
JAIPUR: Rajasthan high court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the Gujjar quota bill passed by the assembly last year which provides for 5% reservation to Gujjars and three other communities, besides another 14% to economically backward classes (EBCs).

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TNN 15 September 2009
NEW DELHI: The findings of an official survey indicating that OBC population in rural areas was around 38.5% have given fresh impetus to calls for a caste-based census with law minister Veerappa Moily asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do away with the bar on caste enumeration in the 2011 census.

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12 August 2009
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the decks for the Mayawati government to implement its decision to offer 50% quota for SCs, STs and OBCs in admissions to private unaided medical, engineering and other professional educational institutions, except those run by minority communities.

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ENS Jul 23, 2009 
 Rajya Sabha members cutting across party lines today slammed the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment as unenthusiastic and lethargic, and demanded early implementation of reservations in the private sector, and for Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

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TNN 24 July 2009
The state government has directed the UP Technical University (UPTU) to implement 50% reservation for the Scheduled Caste/Tribes and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in private management and technical institutes coming under its purview.

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16/05/2009
NEW DELHI: After several seats reserved for students from the Other Backward Classes remained vacant last year in the absence of eligible candidates, Delhi University will make such unfilled seats available to all other categories, including the general category, during the upcoming new academic year 2009-10.

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30 Apr 2009, TNN
NEW DELHI: Delhi University will have nearly 5,000 more seats for the OBC students in the new session starting July. But the colleges are hardly ready to take the extra load. The expansion plans are ready, but only on paper. Colleges say the construction of more classrooms and laboratories cannot start before getting approval from various agencies which is unlikely to happen before the freshers come in.

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Indian Express Apr 21, 2009
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday gave a push to her prime ministerial aspirations, promising Scheduled Caste status to 16 more castes if she came to power at the Centre.

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Clarion Call to all the well meaning citizens

1.     Why the right man is not on right table?

2.     Why law abiding citizens are threatened in this country?

3.     Why not a single parliamentarian opposed the reservation bill?

4.     Why divisive agendas like caste, religion and region get priority over development in manifestos of political parties?

ANSWER……………….. Because we don’t vote.

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April 11, 2009 PTI

Observing that vacancies are not filled by "charity", the Supreme Court has said the government is not under any Constitutional obligation to provide reservation to SCs, STs etc, in preliminary tests conducted for filling up official posts

"Judging of merit may be at several tiers. It may undergo several filtrations. Ultimately, the constitutional scheme is to have the candidates who would be able to serve the society and discharge the functions attached to the office. Vacancies are not filled up by way of charity," the apex court said.

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8 Apr 2009, 0602 hrs IST, TNN
PATNA: The LJP has promised to create a `Dalit Regiment', on the lines of Sikh, Gurkha and Maratha regiments, to broad base representation of Dalits in the armed forces and to infuse self-respect among them. The party wants to extend facility of reservation for SC, ST, OBC and minorities to judicial services and establishment of a National Judicial Services.

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21 Mar 2009, 0513 hrs IST, ET Bureau
It’s time for a re-run of the quota story. Congress, which promised quota in the private sector in 2004, has once again said it would  extend reservations to the private sector and private educational institutions.

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20 Feb 2009,  TNN
 
NEW DELHI: There will be no exemptions from the quota regime, with the Centre buckling under protests from dalit groups and dropping contentious provisions from a proposed law which sought to restrict job reservations only to entry-level posts in IIMs, IITs and scientific organisations.

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Jan 28, 2009,CNN-IBN
New Delhi: In a significant development, 47 top institutions in the country including the IITs and IIMs as well as the central university will be exempted from faculty reservations.

The job reservations for SC/ST citizens in India so far has been through a bunch executive order.

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Amartya Sen backs quota in IITs
22 Dec 2008,TNN

Counselling critics of reservation in Indian institutions like the IITs to take a long-term view of the delicate social issue, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Sunday said the justice component in quotas could not be wished away, as many sections of Indian society had been denied access to education for centuries.

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Income limit for ‘creamy layer’ of OBCs increased
ENS, Dec 16, 2008
Dharamshala : The state government has decided to increase the income limit of the creamy layer of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh per year, said Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary, in a statement in the Vidhan Sabha.

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PTI,Dec 15, 2008 at 19:27
Bench wants to know why definition of privileged was changed.
RESERVED ROW: The Supreme Court serves notice on creamy layer definition.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a reply from the Centre on a batch of petitions challenging the move to raise the annual income ceiling for the creamy layer among the OBC candidates, seeking admission to central educational institutions, from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh.

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on Human Rights Day 10th Dec 2008 at 1.30 P.M.

From Kirorimal College Through Kranti Chowk to VC Residence( North Campus DU)

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Maya’s sop story: Quota for Muslims at par with Dalits

Nov 25, 2008

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday tried to woo Muslim voters in Delhi as part of an effort to chip away at sections considered traditional Congress allies. Addressing a rally in Aligaon village of Badarpur constituency in Delhi, she said, “Muslims in Delhi have been ignored and we will make amends. We’ll give them benefits on the lines of those for the Dalits.”

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अब खत्म हो आरक्षण व्यवस्था : हाईकोर्ट

लखनऊ। इलाहाबाद हाईकोर्ट की लखनऊ पीठ ने एक महत्वपूर्ण फैसला देते हुए टिप्पणी की कि 60 सालों से जारी आरक्षण व्यवस्था अब समाप्त होनी चाहिए। आरक्षण व्यवस्था की प्रत्येक पांच या दस साल पर समीक्षा होनी चाहिए थी, परन्तु इतने साल बीत जाने के बाद भी यह जारी है और इस व्यवस्था का इस्तेमाल चुनाव में वोट प्राप्त करने के लिए किया जा रहा है। आरक्षण व्यवस्था का दुरूपयोग समाज में दरार पैदा कर रहा है और यह राष्ट्रीय अखंडता के लिए घातक है।

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Nov 21,2008

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that for reservation to apply there must exist more than one post/seat. Applying this rule, a scheduled caste candidate was denied the job of a History Lecturer in a private college in Karnataka, as there exited a single post in the college’s History department.

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Nov 18, 2008  Indian Express
The Supreme Court had directed the Centre to revert unfilled OBC quota seats to general category in Central Education Institutions. However, the Centre had decided to apply increased creamy layer income cap — from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh retrospectively — allowing OBC candidates to apply afresh. On Monday, the Supreme Court asked for an explanation from the Centre on the issue.

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Youth For Equality
Quiz contest-2008

Know Youth For Equality Movement…………….

A Youth Movement started in 2006 in protest against 27% Reservation for OBC in Central Educational institutions in India.

Objectives:

 To make more and more people aware and involved into this movement.
 To spread the awareness about ill effects of reservation.
 To make more people realize about their duties and responsibilities when the nation is under threat of caste based division.

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PNS | Bhubaneswar
13/11/2008
The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) has decided to oppose the proposal of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) which has allowed the engineering colleges to start a second shift in the college premises.

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13/11/08,The Hindu
A Bill was introduced in the Assembly on Wednesday to withdraw exclusive reservation of 3.5 per cent provided to Backward Class Christians for enabling them to compete within the reservation provided for Backward Classes.

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11 Nov 2008,TNN 

The time has come to think about the creamy layer among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and their gradual exclusion from quota benefits, said Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, the first Dalit judge to occupy the highest post in the judiciary.

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CNN-IBN, 11Nov, 2008
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh is upset that central institutions especially the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are not using the funds released to build new infrastructure for the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).

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7 Nov 2008,TNN
After okaying quota for other backward classes in education and jobs in the last 15 years, the Supreme Court on Thursday appeared to have doubts about the necessity of keeping seats reserved for OBCs in panchayat and civic body elections.

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26 Oct 2008, TNN
CHENNAI: Take up a caste-wise census in the country and complete the exercise in a time-bound manner. The percentage of SC, ST and OBC reservation shall be proportionately increased on the basis of the census. This is the directive the Madras high court gave to the Centre on Friday.

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25 Oct, 2008
The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Private Educational Institutions) Act, 2006, providing for 69 per cent reservation.

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25 Oct, 2008
 The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections due on November 3 on the ground that they were being held contrary to the guidelines and recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee.

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24/10/08
BELGAUM: The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, L.K. Advani, wished to do away with the “quota mindset” in the field of professional and higher education, even as he announced that there would be an elevation of the Indian education system to international standards if the National Democratic Alliance returned to power in the next Lok Sabha elections.

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24/10/2008
The Government on Thursday introduced the Central Universities Bill, 2008 in the Lok Sabha.
The umbrella legislation seeks to establish 12 new Central Universities and upgrade four existing State universities as Central university.

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Chandigarh, October 20 : It took more than a fortnight and a contempt case in the High Court for the Panjab University (PU) to comply with the directions issued by the Supreme Court to de-reserve seats lying vacant under the OBC quota.

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Central Panel:

Vikram Singh – President Ph.D. student, School of Information Technology,
Brundaban Mishra – Vice President Ph.D. student, School of Social Sciences,
Amit Ranjan – General Secretary Ph.D. student, School of Environmental Sciences,
Raghib Akhtar – Joint Secretary Ph.D. student, School of Language, Literature and Culture

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Oct 21, 2008
Almost two months into the continuing spate of violence in Kandhamal, the Orissa Government on Monday submitted before the Supreme Court that the genesis of the violence lay in the “age-old ethnic divide and discord between the Kandhas (a Scheduled Tribe) and Panas (a Scheduled Caste) in the state”.
In response to a petition filed by the Archbishop of Cuttack, the Naveen Patnaik Government said, “There are long standing disputes between the Kandhas and Panas on issues arising out of land alienation and certain other perceived discriminations. The Kandhas perceive and nurture grievances that large number of Panas have illegally usurped their rightful entitlement of reservation benefits under the ST category by illegally claiming ST certificates.”

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19 Oct 2008
In its latest move to woo Muslim voters ahead of assembly elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced to reserve as many as 40% of its seats for Muslim candidates. The announcement comes close on the heels of the party taking the lead to press for a judicial inquiry into the Batla House encounter episode in Jamia Nagar.

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19/10/2008. The Hindu

Former Union Minister and National Social Justice Forum Chairman D.P. Yadav on Saturday, demanded that a statutory commission be constituted to monitor the implementation of reservation for the backward classes.

Participating in a seminar on “Backward classes and internal reservation”, organised by the Karnataka Joint Action Committee of Backward Classes, Dalits and Minorities in Bangalore, Mr. Yadav said such a statutory body was necessary as the implementation of reservation for the backward classes was very poor.

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16 Oct 2008,  TNN
The HRD ministry is weighing various options including seeking clarification from the Supreme Court on its order passed on Tuesday asking the government to fill OBC vacancies in central educational institutions with general category candidates.
The moot issue, a highly placed source said, was that October is too late to fill vacancies. He pointed out that last year, the apex court had deferred its final order on OBC reservation in June on the ground that it was too late to implement it.

The second issue on which the HRD ministry could seek clarification relates to implementing the new creamy layer criteria to fill OBC vacancies. "We will ask if the new creamy layer criteria of Rs 4.5 lakh annual income can be used to deal with the vacancies," the source said.

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15 Oct 2008,TNN
General category students who missed admission to premier institutes like IIM by a whisker will get a fresh chance as the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the filling up of vacant seats under 27% OBC quota in all central educational institutions (CEIs) by October-end.

Trying hard to project the HRD ministry's confusion before a constitution bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati said filling the vacant seats in case of staggered implementation of the 27% OBC quota could cause a problem.

There was no confusion in the minds of the judges, said senior advocate K K Venugopal appearing for petitioner educationist P V Indiresan. They were unanimous that the judgment was categoric that all vacant seats had to revert to general category, he said.

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15 Oct 2008,TNN. 

Educationist P V Indiresan on Tuesday threw an open challenge in the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the UPA government's recent decision to raise the creamy layer income limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh for OBCs.

But, the government told the apex court that it had done a reasonable job by fixing the creamy layer exclusion income limit at Rs 4.5 lakh at a time when many elected representatives had demanded raising it to Rs 25 lakh.

Appearing for Indiresan, who had challenged the 27% OBC quota in Central educational institutions, senior
advocate K K Venugopal told a 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan that it was an election-eve vote bank politics to appease the rich among the OBCs, who could now gobble up the seats meant for the poorest among the backward.

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09 Oct 2008,TNN

The proposal to give Scheduled Caste status to a child with either parents as Dalit has taken a curious turn, with the Centre making changes to ensure that it does not give a backdoor entry to Christians and Muslims into the SC list which is restricted to Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists.

Social justice ministry has revived the proposal by which it plans to make a child eligible for SC status if either the mother or father are SC. It seeks to undo a Supreme Court ruling that caste in Indian context flows from the father, clarifying that child of a non-Dalit father cannot be a Dalit.

After hanging fire for over two years, during which it attracted opposition from different quarters including National Commission for SCs, the ministry has modified the proposal with a small twist of real consequence.

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The Indian Express
New Delhi, October 7 : The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday is all set to amend the SC/ST(Reservation in Posts and Services) Act by passing a statutory order banning dereservation of posts in seats reserved for SC/STs, penal action against officials not implementing the reservation policy satisfactorily and training of SC/ST candidates who do not meet administrative requirements for being appointed to the reserved posts.
The reservation policy has so far been implemented through an executive order and while the SC judgement in the landmark Indira Sawhney case had granted legal validity to the executive order, the proposed amendment seeks to go a step further and provide a statutory status to it. The order seeks to prevent vacant SC/ST seats from being dereserved for the general category and also ensure greater recruitment of SC/ST candidates. The larger aim of the amendments is to ensure that the government plays a pro-active rule in increasing the representation of SC/STs in government jobs.

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Oct 08, 2008;The Indian Express:
The emergency meeting called by the Academic Council of the Delhi University on Tuesday to discuss the feasibility of starting a semester system in the colleges is not expected to come out with any fruitful results.
According to sources in the Council, the meeting was likely to continue till the early hours of Wednesday.

On the other hand, the Council has expressed consent for the integrated, four-year dual degree course that will give students a chance to earn two bachelor’s degrees.

The Council also discussed the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) recommendations in May 2006 on reservations in the faculty.

While the Academic Council is in favour of the four-year dual degree course, the members have expressed dissent over the semester system, demanding that the annual examination system should continue.

The Council is also learnt to have passed a resolution against the UGC’s recommendations regarding a college-wise reservation for faculties.

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October 6 ; Indian Express
The Delhi University has called an emergency meeting of its Academic Council on Tuesday to take forward Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s suggestion last year that all central universities in the country should have a semester-based examination system.
The Academic Council, or the university’s supreme executive body, will thrash out on Tuesday the feasibility of the semester system. Members will also discuss the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) recommendations in May 2006 on reservation in faculty. Another important topic on the agenda is the integrated, four-year dual degree course that will give students a chance to earn two bachelors degrees.

While the semester system is already practised in the university’s postgraduate courses, it will be implemented for undergraduates by 2010. Semesters are already the norm in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), BITS (Pilani) and the IITs, wherein students study new courses every semester. In DU, courses in management, law and chemistry are already in the semester mode.

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TNN;MUMBAI: Censorship. That is what directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are currently fighting, after the Union human resource development ministry edited out their opinion against faculty reservation.

Access to the minutes of the meeting of the standing committee of the IIT council (SCIC), through a right to information query, reveals that the opinion of the seven directors was cleverly masked by the HRD ministry. The minutes left out one of the most crucial points aired by the IIT chiefs — that they were totally against the introduction of reservation in the recruitment policy for faculty members.

The SCIC meeting on July 4, chaired by C N R Rao, principal scientific adviser to the PM, was called to discuss the issue of introducing SC, ST and OBC reservation in recruiting faculty members. However, despite the directors' opposition, the minutes did not incorporate their view.

The HRD ministry had sent a diktat to all IITs on June 9, asking them to set aside 15%, 7.5% and 27% quotas in teaching positions for the SC, ST and OBC categories. IITs currently have reservations for the backward category for administrative posts — from attendants to the level of deputy registrar. However, there is no reservation for faculty members.

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Govt adds more cream to quota's creamy layer

New Delhi: India is gearing up for the election season with Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir going to polls at the end of this year. Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held early next year.
Ahead of the elections, the Central Government has decided to extend some more benefit to the Other Backward Castes (OBC).
The Union Cabinet met on Friday and decided to increase the income limit of creamy layer of OBCs from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum.
However, the government's decision goes against a Supreme Court judgment which said that vacant OBC seats in higher education institutes be de-reserved to accommodate general category students.
"Our party has always been of the view that creamy layer should not be excluded for quota benefit," Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel and Lok Jan Shakti Party chief, said.
The pro-quota lobby in the United Progressive Alliance had been demanding a lot more than the Supreme Court permitted in its OBC quota judgment.

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After Christian groups, a Muslim organisation has joined the quota race by challenging in Supreme Court validity of the 1950 Presidential Order limiting reservations to scheduled castes in Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, and sought reservation benefit for Dalit Muslims.

Though both Christianity and Islam prohibit practice of caste-system and consider everyone equal, the petitioners have hinged their demand on the recommendations of central government appointed commissions headed by Justice Ranganath Misra and Justice Rajinder Sachar.

A PIL filed by Akhil Maharashtra Muslim Khatik Samaj on Friday stated that there were Dalits within Muslim community who needed reservation, a benefit extended to similarly placed persons in Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

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In clear violation of a Supreme Court order restraining OBC admissions in Central educational institutions, a deemed university in Tamil Nadu has required students applying for its MBA course to disclose their OBC status.

The admission form for the batch 2008-10 issued by the Department of Management Studies at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapally requires the prospective candidate to tick at one of the three boxes providing for SC, ST, and OBC. Interestingly the heading under which the boxes are provided states, "whether SC/ST" while providing a third option as well.

By doing so, the institute (NIT) has joined ranks with Delhi University and Symbiosis University, who also sought similar information in its admission forms last year. Following a petition filed by NGO Youth for Equality and two separate petitions filed by aggrieved students, the Supreme Court show-caused both universities and restrained their action in seeking details about OBC status of applicants.

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A large number of Dalit Christians and Muslims from across the country took part in a protest march at Jantar Mantar here on Friday against the delay in implementation of the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission recommendations for extending SC status to Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste origin. Several religious heads of both Catholic and Protestant churches joined in the protest. According to the organisers, the protest was aimed at intensifying the struggle of Dalit Christians and was supported by the National Council of Churches in India and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India. National Council of Dalit Christians president Mary John said: "If the SC status is not granted, Dalit Christians and Muslims will intensify the struggle in the States and may resort to alternative options in the forthcoming general elections." "We urge the Centre to grant Scheduled Caste status to Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste origin," said NCDC national convenor V. J. George.

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Flush with their success in securing reservations for their constituency in central educational institutions, the powerful OBC political class has now launched a campaign for reservations in higher judiciary, accusing the collegium — constituted by Supreme Court to oversee recruitments of judges — of "social discrimination" and "caste bias", leading to "total elimination" of SCs/STs/OBCs from higher judiciary.

An all-party delegation of 'backward' MPs called on PM Manmohan Singh on Thursday to forcefully demand introduction of quota in higher judiciary. The MPs, belonging to the Parliamentary Forum of OBC MPs, told the PM that backwards and SCs/STs were grossly under-represented in higher judiciary.

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A study commissioned by the National Commission for Minorities has suggested extension of reservation to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

Bringing them under the ambit of the constitutional safeguards that are available to other Scheduled Castes would "not only right a wrong" but also remove an "indefensible anomaly in our politico-legal system that can legitimately be construed as discriminatory," it said.

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There has been a final adjudication of the dispute with regard to OBC reservation. From The perspective of Youth For Equality we would like to bring out the following Points.

• Economically and Socially backward classes of people must be included in the list of beneficiaries which a path breaking achievements for us.
• We have succeeded in our endeavor of getting the creamy layer excluded.
• Educational Backwardness cannot be claimed beyond graduation.

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Anti-quota forum `Youth for Equality' said the Supreme Court decision on 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in institutions of higher learning barred students who had graduated utilising the quota from availing it at the post-graduate level.

"The Supreme Court has clearly said that educational backwardness cannot be claimed beyond graduation and according to the order the Government cannot implement the quota beyond graduation," said Shashank Shekher, Vice President of Youth for Equality.

The group, however, is yet to decide on its future course of action after the court's decision to give a go-ahead to 27 per cent OBC quota.

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The day after the Supreme Court upheld the law bringing 27% OBC quotas in Central institutions without the creamy layer, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed possibilities of reviewing the definition of creamy layer.

The Supreme Court put the creamy layer rider to keeping the relatively “well-off” amongst the backwards out of the quota net. Sources told The Indian Express that the HRD minister, during his 15-minute session with the PM just ahead of the Cabinet meeting, mooted the idea of increasing the income threshold from Rs 2.5 lakh per annum to a “more reasonable limit,” a point, incidentally, raised by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati yesterday.

In fact, the income criteria of Rs 2.5 lakh was revised in 2004, up from Rs 1 lakh which was set in 1993.

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Apr 13 Rather than consider the option of a review petition against the Supreme Court judgement on OBC reservation, the UPA government will look at ways to ensure maximum inclusion of the backward caste base within the 27% quota ambit by redefining the creamy layer and easing "stringent parameters" of eligibility.

Besides increasing income slab of Rs 2.5 lakh, the government is likely to consider other measures such as including religious minorities and removing some of the designated persons or groups in the present creamy layer list. The SC had on Thursday upheld the 27% quota for OBCs but clarified that the creamy layer or the elite would be kept out.

Government managers on Sunday affirmed that the growing chorus from UPA allies as well as other parties for a revision of the criteria defining those included in the creamy layer could not be ignored, but contended that it would have to be discussed at the political level before the formal proposal made its way to the Cabinet. An all party meeting on the isssue is not being ruled out.

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Congress on Saturday shifted into higher gear on quota, asking the Centre to speed up the legislation aiming to provide OBC quota in private institutions.

Party spokesman Veerappa Moily said, "Congress supports similar law for private unaided institutions."

He also disengaged the party from the view in a section of the UPA government that the OBC quota would not apply to PG courses and IIMs. He termed the interpretation as "misconception".

The assertion coincided with the renewed resolve, reported by TOI on Friday, of the HRD ministry to move for the passage of the Bill which had to be put on the back burner because of the challenge to the law that sought to introduce OBC quota in central educational institutions.

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NEW DELHI: The pro-quota lobby may have been aghast by Mayawati’s call for reservation for poor upper caste, but the majority opinion of the five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which okayed 27% OBC reservation excluding creamy layer, voiced concern for the discrimination faced by the economically backward.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan led from the front and said: "Determination of backward class cannot be exclusively based on caste. Poverty, social backwardness, economic backwardness, all are criteria for determination of backwardness."

While discussing exclusion of creamy layer, the CJI said: "One of the main criteria for determining the socially and educationally backward class is poverty."

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HRD MINISTRY ISSUES DIRECTIONS FOR CENTRAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF RESERVATION FOR THE OBCS

The implementation of reservation in admission under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006 [No. 5 of 2006] in respect of persons belonging to the socially and educationally backward classes (OBCs) had been ‘stayed’ by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, while hearing Writ Petition (Civil) No. 265 and a bunch of other writ petitions. The Apex Court has now finally disposed of the petitions on the 10th April, 2008, upholding the constitutional validity of the 93rd Amendment [Article 15(5)] of the Constitution in so far as the Central Educational Institutions, established, maintained or aided by the Central Government are concerned. The court has also upheld the CEI Act, 2006, with the directions that the OBCs shall not include socially advanced persons (commonly known as the “creamy layer”). Thus, all CEIs other than those mentioned in the Schedule of the CEI Act, have to implement the policy of reservation of 27% of seats for the OBCs apart from 15% seats for the SCs and 7.5% for the STs from the academic session commencing this year, in accordance with the phasing of the expansion of capacity necessitated in order to ensure that the seats available in the unreserved category are not reduced.

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The Parliamentary Forum of Other Backward Class MPs on Tuesday unanimously rejected the concept of creamy layer as ruled by the Supreme Court.

This rejection of the creamy layer concept that the government has accepted in the wake of the Court order was taken at a meeting of the Forum here.

Attended by four members of the Union Council of Ministers — Anbumani Ramadoss, R. Velu, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan and V. Narayanasamy — the meeting drew participation from most political parties.

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In protest of Govt's move to implement reservation in PG level courses Youth For Equality formed a human chain of students from institutions across Delhi like Delhi University, JNU,GGSIPU, MAMC, UCMS, DCE and AIIMS. Around 500 students formed human chain with Banners and posters at inner circle of Connought Place (central Park). Then students marched towards janpath with the effigy of Mr Arjun Singh (HRD Minister) and blocked the traffic for more than half an hour at Janpath and burnt the effigy of Arjun Singh. The march was aimed towards the residence of Ms Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson UPA, however they were prevented to move forward at Janpath. Police used water cannon to disperse the mass but the students who are deeply hurt by the manipulation of Supreme Courts order in Implementing OBC Quota, they resisted.

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In a jolt to pro-reservationists, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed quota for OBCs in post-graduate courses in Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and stopped interview of OBC candidates for the same.

Justice Maharaj Sinha, in an ex-parte interim order, granted the stay on a petition by Sayan Guha, a B-Tech student challenging the HRD ministry's memorandum and also the IIM-C interview scheduled for Thursday.

The interim order stayed till June nine the operation of the reservation clause of IIM prospectus and also the resolution of office memorandum dated April 20, 2008 passed by the HRD ministry.

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The Supreme Court on Friday quashed a Calcutta High Court interim order that stopped implementation of 27 per cent OBC quotas in post-graduate courses, including the ones in the Indian Institutes of Management.

The Calcutta High Court was hearing a plea challenging OBC quotas in post-graduate courses by a student who is to appear for an interview for admission to the IIM-C.

Following the stay, all admission procedures in IIM-Calcutta were put on hold. But on Thursday, the Central government appealed to Supreme Court seeking a vacation on the stay.

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Youth For Equality activists from different medical colleges in Delhi have boycotted their classes and set on Indefinite Hunger Strike opposing OBC reservation in Higher Educational Institutions. More than 100 Students from Maulana Azad Medical College(MAMC), University College of Medical Sciences(UCMS), Lady Harding Medical College(LHMC) are on Indefinite Hunger Strike. Hunger Strike started on 22nd May morning at Maulana Azad Medical College(MAMC) premises.

During April 2006 just after the declaration of reservation for OBCs in higher education by the Govt YFE protested vehemently against Caste based reservation and the whole nation has witnessed the protest. Then the matter went to Supreme Court and honorable Court has given its verdict.

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EVEN as the admission process for the new batch of IIM-A's flagship post graduate management programme is drawing to a close, a chink in the much-talked about creamy layer issue has come up. Despite having a declared annual family income of Rs 7 lakh, a candidate has got admission in the country's top B-school in the OBC quota, because the current guidelines exclude him from the creamy layer category.

This has forced the institute to relook the definition of "creamy layer" as laid down by the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). "As per NCBC guidelines, the student qualifies as non-creamy layer OBC candidate, and has his certificate in place. What confounded us and indeed forced us to relook at the description defining creamy layer was his declared annual family income of Rs 7 lakh. The guidelines defining creamy layer OBC' come across as flawed," said a senior faculty member on condition of anonymity.

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