Former Chief Justice of India Justice R C Lahoti, who presided over the seven-judge Supreme Court bench in the Inamdar case and ruled against quotas in private colleges, has broken his silence to slam HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s move to bring a Bill for 27% OBC quotas in Central institutions. “The proposed law will violate the Constitution and the principles laid down (in a series of Supreme Court rulings),” Justice Lahoti told The Indian Express today. Asked about the Constitutional amendment, Article 15(5), which was passed this January to enable the Government to impose quotas, he said: “Maybe that itself will be struck down. The ball will be in the court’s court now.” This is an echo of what another former Chief Justice of India, Justice V N Khare had told The Indian Express last week. Justice Khare had presided over the bench in the Pai and the Islamic Academy cases on quotas for minority institutions. The proposed bill is based on that amendment which gives the state the power to make any special provision, “by law” for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. Justice Lahoti’s bench was set up to explain what Justice Khare’s 11-judge bench had ruled in the TMA Pai Foundation case (October 31, 2002) and his five-judge bench in the Islamic Academy case (August 14, 2003).
