By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Thursday asked the government if the new law for enhancing caste-based reservations in higher educational institutions would ensure social empowerment of backward classes that do not have full access to elementary education.
Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati faced the poser from the constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, towards the fag end of his three-day arguments in defence of the law.
Seeking to know what was the prerequisite for the empowerment of backward classes of citizens – elementary education or higher education, the bench observed, “Your (Centre’s) effort for higher education to backward classes would require lesser effort if you bring the elementary education among them to a level.
“You reach higher level of education after you complete elementary education,” the bench told the government’s law officer, recalling the anti-quota petitioners’ contention that the government was set to spend Rs.360 billion to provide reservation in higher education, though it was not able to meet its target in providing elementary education.
Vahanvati, however, asserted that it was a question of priority and both higher and primary education could go hand in hand.
“The attempt is to balance both elementary and higher education. Neither elementary nor higher education can be ignored,” he told the bench.
“We are doing (it) simultaneously and it is a permissible exercise,” Vahanvati said.
Responding to earlier arguments by the anti-quota petitioners, who had questioned the law providing 27 percent reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) students in the absence of any statistics on the population of such classes, the solicitor general said that there was no need to have caste-based census to determine the relevant population.
He said that according to a survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) between July 2004 and June 2005, 41 percent of the population consisted of backward castes.
Vahanvati said the survey had found the scheduled caste population at 20 percent and scheduled tribe at eight percent.
Despite that the government was providing only 27 percent reservation to the OBC students owing to the 50 percent sealing imposed by the apex court on the overall quota.
Vahanvati concluded his arguments Friday, leaving the floor open for senior counsel K. Parasaran, who will begin Tuesday his arguments on behalf of Tamil Nadu, which is also supporting the reservation policy of the central government.