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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Women's quota bill tabled in Rajya Sabha amid high drama

The Landmark but contentious constitutional amendment bill providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament was finally introduced on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha amid high drama and loud protests. Members of SP tried snatching the papers from Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj, demanding a sub quota for Dalits, backwards and minorities.

The Congress led UPA put in place a two-fold strategy to bring the bill in the House, which was adjourned for an hour after it was tabled, and subsequently adjourned sine die.

The first part was to ensure the bill's introduction amid the anticipated uproar and commotion. As part of a well-crafted plan, Congress and Left members like Ambika Soni, Kumari Selja, Brinda Karat cordoned off Bhardwaj (who deliberately occupied the second row) as he rose from the treasury benches.

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

9 percent OBC quota at IITs this year

Seven Branches of IIT will reserve nine percent seats for OBC category students in the 2008-09 academic session, a joint admission board decided in a meeting on Wednesday. Directors of the seven IITs, along with representatives of IT BHU and ISM Dhanbad said that admissions into the JEE 2008 will be done taking into account the reservation for OBC category students.

However, the three new IITs, proposed in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh will implement 27 per cent reservation. "The new IITs will take in 50 percent general category students and the rest will be from SC, ST and OBC categories. But the existing IITs will implement the entire 27 per cent reservation by 2010," said Prof Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi.

The IITs will have to double the existing strength of faculty in order to cope with the extra students. "At IIT Delhi we have a sanctioned strength of 556 faculty positions and roughly 420 are filled," said Prasad. "If we plan to implement 27 per cent OBC quota by 2010 we will need to double faculty strength in the next two years."

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Scheduled Castes clears Other Backward Classes quota law

Ending uncertainty over the controversial law providing for 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central educational institutions including IITs and IIMs, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld its validity but ruled that the "creamy layer" among the backwards would not get reservation.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan upheld the Central Educational lnstitutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, paying the way for its implementation in all central educational institutions.

The landmark verdict comes as a major victory for the UPA government, which had to face embarrassment after the court stayed the implementation of the OBC quota law last year.

The bench, also comprising justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker, R.V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, unanimously said the "creamy layer" must be excluded from the socially and educationally backward classes as per a 1993 government order The government order excludes wards of people holding constitutional posts and senior government officials from the quota ambit.

Justice Bhandari asked the government to exclude the children of former and present MPs and MLAs from the purview of OBC reservation. The judges, however, clarified that the "creamy layer" concept was not applicable to Scheduled Castes and Schedu1ed Tribes. There should be a periodic review after five years on continuing with the OBC quota, they added.

The bench also upheld the validity of the Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act 2005 that enabled the government to enact laws providing for OBC reservation in central education- al institutions, saying it did not violate the Constitution's basic structure. It also rejected the petitioners' contention that not extending the OBC quota law to minority educational institutions was illegal.

The exclusion of minority educational institutions from the ambit of the law did not violate the Constitution as "they (minority institutions) are a separate class and their rights are protected by other constitutional provisions," the CJI said.

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