The Supreme Court today posted the hearing into the OBC quota issue to Wednesday and directed the concerned parties to frame their questions to be taken up by a larger bench.The direction came after Solicitor General G Vahanvati requested the court to refer the case pertaining to 27 percent reservation for OBC students in higher educational institutions to a Constitution Bench.
New Delhi, May 8 : The Supreme Court today posted the hearing into the OBC quota issue to Wednesday and directed the concerned parties to frame their questions to be taken up by a larger bench.The direction came after Solicitor General G Vahanvati requested the court to refer the case pertaining to 27 percent reservation for OBC students in higher educational institutions to a Constitution Bench.
Vahanvati argued that a two-judge Bench, comprising Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice L K Panta, cannot adjudicate the case as it involved substantive question of Constitutional law.
On Monday, an apex court bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran served a new notice to the Centre on the issue after hearing on a petition filed by IIM Alumni Association.
The petition has sought review of the entire quota policy and the Mandal Commission Report, apart from challenging the Centre's recent notification providing 27 percent reservation to the OBCs in admission to Centrally-funded higher educational institutions.
Earlier last month, the court had dismissed the Centre's application seeking vacation of the stay to provide 27 per cent reservation to the OBC students.
Causing a major setback to the Centre, the court had stated that it found no reason to vacate the stay imposed by its March 29 interim order, directing the government to put on hold the implementation of OBC quota in the academic session 2007-08.
The government wants to boost the number of college places for lower caste students to 49.5 percent from 22.5 percent, a move strongly opposed by mainly upper caste students.
ANI