India’s centuries-old caste system is responsible for generating reservations in the country. Simply put, it involves making access to government jobs, educational institutions, and seats in legislatures private for certain sections of society. These sections have suffered historical injustices simply because of their caste identity. This, further, is a form of quota-based affirmative action that can also be called positive discrimination, as written in the government policies of India, which are supported by the mechanisms of the Indian Constitution.
Historical Background
The caste-based reservation system was actually conceived by William Hunter and Jyotirao Phule in the year 1882. The origin of the reservation system, as it is seen today, was in 1933 when British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald introduced the Communal Award. The award allowed for the provision of separate constituencies for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans, as well as Dalits. After long negotiations, Gandhi and Ambedkar signed the Poona Pact, under which there would be a single Hindu electorate with some reservations. Initially, seats were reserved exclusively for SCs and STs after 1958 after independence, and later in 1991, OBCs were included in the reservation as per the Mandal Commission recommendations.
Mandal Commission
As a privilege of the powers conferred on him by Article 340 of the Constitution, the President promulgated an order on backward classes on 1 December 1978, empowering B.P. Mandal to constitute a Backward Classes Commission and to recommend its benefits from the Commission’s actions to classify it as “socially and educationally backward classes” in India. The Mandal Commission concluded that OBCs constituted about 52 per cent of India’s population and, therefore, advised that 27 per cent of government jobs should be earmarked for them. It introduced eleven indicators for the definition of social, educational and economic backwardness. Besides, identifying backward classes within Hinduism, it also established backward classes among non-Hindus (such as Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists). The Commission released the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list of India, which would include 3,743 castes and a list of poor or “Dalit Backward Classes” of 2,108 castes. The question of 27 per cent reservation for backward classes was considered in Indra Sawhney et al. v. Union of India (1992). However, the Court invalidated the ten per cent reservation for all government jobs in a notification that the government had made specifically for a section of the upper castes, the “economically backward classes”.
The Supreme Court also accepts in principle that the total amount of beneficiaries of reservation should not exceed 50% proportion of the entire population of India. It was this judgment that actually popularized the concept of the so-called ‘creamy layer’, which established that reservation for backward classes should apply only up to the first appointment and never to promotions. The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019 has recently provided 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for categories of people considered economically backward. The amendment to the Constitution has added a quid pro quo clause in Articles 15 and 16 by virtue of which it enables the provision of reservation in government jobs on the basis of the criterion of economic backwardness. This 10% economic reservation is in excess of the existing limit of 50%.
Constitutional provisions governing reservation in India
The Constitution of India provides for reservation for SCs and STs under Part XVI for both the Central and State Legislatures. Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution empower the State as well as Central Governments to provide reservation for SCs and STs in government services. Further, the Constitution was amended through the Constitution (77th Amendment) Act, 1995, by which a new clause (4A) was added to Article 16 to provide for reservation in promotions. Later, the said clause (4A) was amended by the Constitution (85th Amendment) Act, 2001, whereby promotion beneficiaries of SCs and STs promoted under reservation will get AES. Further, through the Constitutional 81st Amendment Act, 2000, Article 16(4B) was inserted, providing a provision under which in case of unfilled vacancies in any year to be reserved for SCs/STs, they shall be filled up in the following year. It thus nullifies the 50 per cent maximum reservation restriction applicable in respect of the total number of vacancies in that year. Articles 330 and 332 provide for reserved seats for SCs and STs respectively in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies. Panchayat seats are reserved for SCs and STs through Article 243D. In respect of SCs and STs, every municipality is governed by Article 233T. The article also states that the claims of SCs and STs shall be upheld in matters of administration.
Judicial scrutiny of reservation
The first major judgment of the Supreme Court on reservation was in the case of State of Madras vs Smt. Champakam Dorairajan (1951). The peculiarities of the case led to the first amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has held that Article 16(4) provides for reservation in favour of backward classes of citizens only in matters of employment under the State, but no such provision is made in Article 15. The Supreme Court further held that it is in consonance with this. Following this judgment of the Supreme Court, Parliament inserted clause (4) in the text of Article 15. This judgment was further examined in the case of Indra Sawhney vs Union of India (1992), where the court put the reservation scheme under Article 16(4) to scrutiny. In this case, the apex court held that the creamy layer of OBCs should be excluded from the reservation list; there should be no reservation in promotions; and the total reserved quota should not exceed 50%. In response, Parliament made an amendment inserting Article 16(4A) through the 77th Amendment Act. It also introduced a provision that gives the state power to have quotas in civil services in favour of SCs and STs. Data cannot be read.
In May 2019, the Supreme Court gave its approval in the 2006 case of Shri Nagaraj vs Union of India, in which it ruled on Article 16(4A) that any policy on reservation must comply with three constitutional requirements to be constitutionally justifiable: That the SC and ST communities will be socially and educationally backward, they will not get adequate representation in government services. That the policy should not in any way affect the overall efficiency of the administration. In the 2018 case of Jarnail Singh vs Lalchami Narayan Gupta, it was held that no data-quantitative data-on backwardness of SC/ST is required to be collected for reservation in promotions; The concept of creamy layer exclusion applies in respect of SC/STs as well, so that states cannot provide reservation in promotions to the cream layer of the SC/ST category. In May last year, the Supreme Court upheld the reservation in advancement law in Karnataka, which allows that reservation in advancement is in favour of SCs and STs with supported seniority.
Why Is Reservation Needed?
To redress the historical injustice meted out to the backward classes in the country. It provides a level playing field for the backward classes so that they can compete with others who have had access to resources and means for centuries. It ensures adequate representation of backward classes in the services under the state. To take the backward classes towards development as the ultimate goal. Meritocracy is about equality, where all people must be brought to the same level before judging them on the basis of merit.
Arguments Against Reservation
Reservation in state services has led to divisions and hostility among government employees, vitiating the atmosphere at the workplace. In reality it is reserved development but in reality the reservation policy on the basis of caste is a continuation of casteism in society. The intention was that reservation would ensure “equal opportunity” for historically disadvantaged communities. However, the latter continue to suffer socially despite their financial progress. Reservation destroys self-esteem to such an extent that it is no longer an issue of producing the best but producing the most backward.
Reservation is the greatest enemy of meritocracy and the bedrock of many vibrant progressive countries. This has happened because it has been used as a tool to create narrow political gains by appealing to class allegiances and fundamental identities that are the bedrock of Indian society. Within the classes that are reserved, there are dominant elite-masters who have used reservation for themselves and marginalised the most backward within these classes. Rather than inclusion, reservation is exclusion: this is why many of the upper caste poor will face the same discrimination and injustice that plagues society.
Reasons For The Rising Demand For Reservation
Reservation is being seen as an antidote to the ill-effects of wrong development policies. Advanced states like Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra, despite their relatively well-growing economies, are seen by the population with three concerns. These are: agrarian distress with suicides; developmental stagnation—overstated employment growth that does not exist; and serious deviation of the developmental trajectory. It is easier for governments to talk about reservations rather than embark on a path of reform. Upper castes are demanding increased reservations and fear losing privileges and lack the ability to adapt to change; Upper castes also see themselves in the vulnerable category as they are still not at all clear whether government jobs should be distributed equally by algorithms as is the case with backward classes.
Suggestion
The benefits of reservation should reach millions of deprived people from disadvantaged castes and not just a handful of spoilt kids in the name of caste reservation. Such reservation benefits remain problematic especially in cases of children with high-ranking official parents, in cases of high-salaried professionals and in cases of affluent children above a particular total family income level on the part of parents, if they are privileged for government vacancies or even being paid for training. Reservation can also be done in a fair and feasible way to help one person from each community who falls under some highly defined criteria of being needy. The process of reservation will filter out the deserving poor and bring all of them under the ambit of justice. This calls for a revolutionary change in the education system at the grassroots level. Thus, there should also be some awareness creation – while the unreserved groups keep opposing the provision, hardly the most needy people from the reserved categories are aware about how to benefit from the provision or whether such provisions actually exist or not. The radical solution would be to completely cancel reservations for all castes except the very poorest castes. This would force such cream groups, or super-rich families within castes, to find new ways of sending their relatives to higher education or better jobs rather than keeping them in a creamy caste separate from the rest.
Way Forward
The solution would be the creation of reservations that cannot be distinguished from fair, when all the benefits would mean the upliftment of society economically and fair positive discrimination for the weaker sections. When a discrimination lacks content and starts to go beyond, everything about it would be detrimental to society and some people would try to take advantage of all these privileges at the cost of sufferings of others for narrow political purposes, then it becomes another situation which society must abandon. It is the restricted communities that have excluded everyone from the privileges of reservation, which create hostility and prejudice towards the castes that were given reservation quotas. When backwardness is more attractive than advancement, a nation slows down by inaction. Unfortunately, meritocracy had to overcome such things; i.e. backwardness was more in demand than advancement. Financial assistance should be extended to the truly disadvantaged so that merit is kept at par with low entry barriers through earned incentives.
Read Also:
- Reservation System In India: Advantages And Disadvantages
- Reservation According to Gender in India
- State-Wise Reservation Percentages In India
- Reservation Schemes in Employment and Education
- Reservation System According to Religion
Leave a Reply