Quota Act hasty, unreasonable: counsel

As he read out the passages of the debate relating to passing of the Act in the Lok Sabha, he said the legislation was referred to as “brave and bold” and the only question was “who is the champion for the cause of OBCs”.

This, according to the senior advocate, was nothing but a “political compulsion” for the Congress as it was clear that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had gone out of its hands.

He pointed out how the mode of implementation and the legal aspect relating to identification of the actual beneficiaries were never discussed. When the students started protesting against the controversial law, the legislators in the Rajya Sabha even referred to them as “misguided youth”, he told the court. “Their only concern was that Arjun Singh was being humiliated,” Dhavan contended.

“The Act is clearly usurpation of the judicial power and Parliament acted in a hasty way which also shows that the entire exercise must be treated as unreasonable,” he submitted.

Besides, eminent advocate Fali S Nariman during his submissions questioned the criteria of “caste” as the starting point of identification of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) when the country was striving towards the ideal of casteless society.

“The assumption that SEBCs of citizens had to be identified from some readily available data (such as caste) is not well founded,” he said adding “the backward classes of citizens have to be identified with reference to one or more of the criteria and when so identified those grouped together would form a class of citizens who are socially and educationally backward”.

Nariman said if caste would be the basis for identifying the SEBCs, it would be limited only to certain groups of Hindu faith. If caste was to be the starting point, it would be impossible to weed out the so-called “creamy layer,” he added.