Article Excerpt
by Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Mar. 31, 2007 (IPS/GIN) — A ruling by India’s Supreme Court on Thursday foiled the government’s plan to promote affirmative action in federal institutions of higher learning.
In 2006 an act of parliament had mandated that the institutions reserve 27 percent of admissions for members of lower castes, but the ruling from a two-judge bench promises to set back such efforts.
The latest order also contradicts the rationale of a 1992 judgment from a much larger bench, composed of nine judges, which upheld such reservations for the low castes (called Other Backward Classes or OBCs) in central government jobs. The new verdict holds that quotas are anti-merit because under them, “unequals are treated as equals.”
India’s ancient caste system divides Hindu society into the Brahmin (priestly), Kshatriya (warrior) Vaishya (trader) and Shudras (serving) castes with the OBC group falling into the last category. Dalits (former untouchables) fall outside this four-fold caste system.
The court’s judgment has been enthusiastically welcomed by upper caste-dominated student bodies. But it has…
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