Judicial Response to the Problems of Reservations

Contents: Introduction. I. Relationship of dominance and dependence. II. Reservation policy and the Indian constitution. III. Judicial concepts and judicial response. IV. Supreme Court and High Court cases: 1. Backward classes and reservations. 2. Reservations for classes other than SC ST&BCs. 3. Income limit and reservations. 4. Extent of reservations. 5. Reservations in promotions and reservations Vs. efficiency. 6. Backward classes and merit. V. Conclusion. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.

"Many societies where norms of equality came to be widely accepted were characterized by deep rooted systems of inequality justified by centuries of practice, sanctified by religious or quasi-religious interpretation and reinforced by unequal access to wealth, education and political power.

"This study is that these has been a much clearer and more consistent judicial view in India. The Indian judiciary has been inclined to follow the principle of parliamentary supremacy by deffering to executive and legislative views of appropriate strategies in the campaign against age old patterns of discrimination. Within its own sphere, the judiciary has sought a balance between the demands for radical pursuit of equal results and equally radical demands for absolute protection of other values such as property rights. While judicial views have been clearer and more consistent in the primary area of reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, there has been less clarity or consistency when judges have turned their attention to positive discrimination for other background classes and even more so in the case of other groups such as the handicapped, ex-service persons, etc., for whom the victimization resulting from discrimination has been much less clear or easily characterized." (jacket)

[Anil Kumar Bajpai is a Lecturer at Maulana Azad Memorial College.]