Quota Act hasty, unreasonable: counsel

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing anti-quota petitioners in the Supreme Court, on Wednesday expressed disappointment that the Stat...

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing anti-quota petitioners in the Supreme Court, on Wednesday expressed disappointment that the Statute enabling reservation in higher educational institutions was never debated seriously in Parliament as members were only engaged in praising their leadership.

8220;The crux of the debate went on congratulating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and HRD Minister Arjun Singh and the legislation was not seriously debated,8221; Dhavan told the Constitutional Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

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 8220;brave and bold8221; and the only question was 8220;who is the champion for the cause of OBCs8221;.

This, according to the senior advocate, was nothing but a 8220;political compulsion8221; 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 8220;misguided youth8221;, he told the court. 8220;Their only concern was that Arjun Singh was being humiliated,8221; Dhavan contended.

8220;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,8221; he submitted.

Besides, eminent advocate Fali S Nariman during his submissions questioned the criteria of 8220;caste8221; as the starting point of identification of socially and educationally backward classes SEBCs when the country was striving towards the ideal of casteless society.

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8220;The assumption that SEBCs of citizens had to be identified from some readily available data such as caste is not well founded,8221; he said adding 8220;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 backward8221;.

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 8220;creamy layer,8221; he added.