HRD ministry rejects Sachar proposal

MMA secretary M N Prasad when contacted said that he was not aware if the HRD Ministry had written objecting to the EOC. “The process of getting ministerial views is on. I am not aware of the HRD Ministry writing to us and opposing it. However, there are oppositions and objections to every proposal and these are sorted out,” he said. Prasad said that the ministry would try to take a legislation on the issue to the Parliament as early as possible.

Sources say that Arjun Singh’s opposition to the EOC is strange, considering his pro-minority image. Singh, incidentally, has been out of action for nearly a month and has just started official work from his residence of late.

The EOC, which has already got the PMO’s go ahead and is aimed at ‘enhancing the legal basis for providing equal opportunities’, was one of the key recommendations made by the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee in its report. The committee had said, “It is a well accepted maxim in law that not only must justice be done, but it must appear to be done. It is in that context that the committee recommends that an EOC should be constituted by the government to look into the grievances of deprived groups.”

The committee report when taken to the Cabinet in May 2007 decided that “the widespread feeling of discrimination among the Muslim community will be addressed by setting up an Equal Opportunities Commission to look into the grievances of deprived groups. An expert group will be set up to examine and determine the structure and function of an EOC. We expect this mechanism to operate in a manner which gives confidence to the minorities that any denial of equal opportunity or bias or discrimination in dealing with them will be attended to and redressal given”.

The EOC is envisaged as vested with the powers of a civil court to summon and investigate and recommend action without passing any sentences. A panel headed by legal expert N R Madhava Menon was set up by the MMA to help finalise the nature and functions of the EOC. The panel’s report was circulated to various ministries a month back for their suggestions. It is during this exercise that the MMA has faced a roadblock unexpectedly from the HRD Ministry. Ministerial views have to be taken into account before taking proposals to the Cabinet.