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Reservation for OBCs in Educational Institution

“The state is empowered to make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes or the scheduled tribes regarding their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, except the minority educational institutions.”

The above exception(c) was added by the 93rd Amendment Act of2005. In order to give effect to this provision, the Centre enacted the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, providing a quota of 27% for candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in all central higher educational institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). In April 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of both, the Amendment Act and the OBC Quota Act. But, the Court directed the central government to exclude the 'creamy layer’ (advanced sections) among the OBCs while implementing the law.
The children of the following different categories of people belong to ‘creamy layer’ among OBCs and thus will not get the quota benefit:

• Persons holding constitutional posts like President, Vice President, Judges of SC and HCs, Chairman and Members of UPSC and SPSCs, CEC, CAG and so on.
• Group ‘A’ / Class I and Group ‘B’ / Class II Officers of the All India, Central and State Services; and Employees holding equivalent posts in PSUs, Banks, Insurance Organisations, Universities etc., and also in private employment.
• Persons who are in the rank of colonel and above in the Army and equivalent posts in the Navy, the Air Force and the Paramilitary Forces.
• Professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers, artists, authors, consultants and so on.
• Persons engaged in trade, business and industry.
• People holding agricultural land above a certain limit and vacant land or buildings in urban areas.
• Persons having gross annual income of more than ₹8 lakh or possessing wealth above the exemption limit. In 1993, when the “creamy layer” ceiling was introduced, it was ₹1 lakh. It was subsequently revised to ₹2.5 lakh in 2004, ₹4.5 lakh in 2008, ₹6lakh in 2013 and ₹8 lakh in 2017.

Reservation for EWSs in Educational Institutions

“ The state is empowered to make any special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens. Further, the state is allowed to make a provision for the reservation of up to 10% of seats for such sections in admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, except the minority educational institutions. This reservation of up to 10% would be in addition to the existing reservations. For this purpose, the economically weaker sections would be notified by the state from time to time on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.” 

The above exception (d) was added by the 103rd Amendment Act of2019. In order to give effect to this provision, the central government issued an order (in 2019) providing 10% reservation to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs) in admission to educational institutions. The benefit of this reservation can be availed by the persons belonging to EWSs who are not covered under any of the existing schemes of reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs. The eligibility criteria laid down in this regard is as follows:

• Persons whose family has gross annual income below ₹8 lakh are to be identified as EWSs for the benefit of reservation. The income would include income from all sources i.e., salary, agriculture, business, profession etc. and it would be income for the financial year prior to the year of application.
• Persons whose family owns or possesses any one of the following assets are to be excluded from being identified as EWSs, irrespective of the family income:
  • 5 acres of Agricultural land and above.
  • Residential flat of 1000 sq. ft. and above.
  • Residential plot of 100 sq. yards and above in notified municipalities.
  • Residential plot of 200 sq. yards and above in areas other than the notified municipalities.
• The property held by a family in different locations or different places / cities would be clubbed while applying the land or property holding test to determine EWS status.
• Family for this purpose would include the person who seeks benefit of reservation, his/her parents and siblings below the age of 18 years as also his/ her spouse and children below the age of 18 years.

Mandal Commission and its Aftermath

It was after ten years in 1990 that the V.P. Singh Government declared reservation of 27% government jobs for the OBCs. Again in 1991, the Narasimha Rao Government introduced two changes: 

• Preference to the poorer sections among the OBCs in the 27% quota, i.e., adoption of the economic criteria in granting reservation, and
• Reservation of another 10% of jobs for poorer (economically backward) sections of higher castes who are not covered by any existing schemes of reservation.

In the famous Mandal case 8 (1992), the scope and extent of Article16 (4), which provides for reservation of jobs in favour of backward classes, has been examined thoroughly by the Supreme Court. Though the Court has rejected the additional reservation of 10% for poorer sections of higher castes, it upheld the constitutional validity of 27% reservation for the OBCs with certain conditions, viz,

• The advanced sections among the OBCs (the creamy layer)should be excluded from the list of beneficiaries of reservation.
• No reservation in promotions; reservation should be confined to initial appointments only. Any existing reservation in promotion scan continue for five years only (i.e., up to 1997).
•  The total reserved quota should not exceed 50% except in some extraordinary situations. This rule should be applied every year.
• The ‘carry forward rule’ in case of unfilled (backlog) vacancies is valid. But it should not violate 50% rule.
• A permanent statutory body should be established to examine complaints of over-inclusion and under-inclusion in the list of OBCs. 

With regard to the above rulings of the Supreme Court, the government has taken the following actions:

• Ram Nandan Committee was appointed to identify the creamy layer among the OBCs. It submitted its report in 1993, which was accepted.
• National Commission for Backward Classes was established in1993 by an act of Parliament. Its mandate was to examine the complaints of under-inclusion, over-inclusion or non-inclusion of any class of citizens in the list of backward classes for the purpose of job reservation. Later, the 102nd Amendment Act of2018 conferred a constitutional status on the commission and also enlarged its functions. For this purpose, the amendment inserted a new Article 338-B in the constitution.
• In order to nullify the ruling with regard to reservation in promotions, the 77th Amendment Act was enacted in 1995. It added a new provision in Article 16 that empowers the State to provide for reservation in promotions of any services under the State in favour of the SCs and STs that are not adequately represented in the state services. Again, the 85th Amendment Act of 2001 provides for ‘consequential seniority’ in the case of promotion by virtue of rule of reservation for the government servants belonging to the SCs and STs with retrospective effect from June 1995.
• The ruling with regard to backlog vacancies was nullified by the81st Amendment Act of 2000. It added another new provision in Article 16 that empowers the State to consider the unfilled reserved vacancies of a year as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years. Such class of vacancies are not to be combined with the vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up to determine the ceiling of 50%reservation on total number of vacancies of that year. In brief, it ends the 50% ceiling on reservation in backlog vacancies.
• The 76th Amendment Act of 1994 has placed the Tamil Nadu Reservations Act9 of 1994 in the Ninth Schedule to protect it from judicial review as it provided for 69 per cent of reservation, far exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling

Reservation for EWSs in Public Employment

“The state is permitted to make a provision for the reservation of up to 10% of appointments or posts in favour of any economically weaker sections of citizens. This reservation of up to 10% would be in addition to the existing reservation. For this purpose, the economically weaker sections would be notified by the state from time to time on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.”

The above exception (d) was added by the 103rd Amendment Act of2019. In order to give effect to this provision, the central government issued an order (in 2019) providing 10% reservation to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs) in civil posts and services in the Government of India. The benefit of this reservation can be availed by the persons belonging to EWSs who are not covered under any of the existing schemes of reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs. The eligibility criteria laid down in this regard has already been explained under Article 15.

Further, the scientific and technical posts which satisfy all the following conditions can be exempted from the purview of this reservation:

• The posts should be in grades above the lower grade in Group A of the service concerned.
• They should be classified as “scientific or technical” in terms of Cabinet Secretariat Order (1961), according to which scientific and technical posts for which qualifications in the natural sciences or exact sciences or applied sciences or in technology are prescribed and the incumbents of which have to use that knowledge in the discharge of their duties.
• The posts should be for conducting research or for organizing, guiding and directing research.