Reservation Not At Odds With Merit; Individual Calibre Trascends Performance In Exams : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that merit should be socially contextualised and reconceptualised as an instrument that advances social goods like equality that we as a society value, and that in this context, reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers the distributive consequences of social justice."Merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunity. Open competitive examinations do not reflect the social, economic and cultural advantage that accrues to certain classes and contributes to their success in such examinations; High scores in an examination are not a proxy for merit...The propriety of actions and dedication to public service should also be seen as markers of merit, which cannot be assessed in a competitive examination. Equally, fortitude and resilience required to uplift oneself from conditions of deprivation is reflective of individual calibre", the Court has held.It goes on to assert that while certain individual members of an identified group that is being given reservation may not be backward or individuals belonging to the non-identified group may share certain characteristics of backwardness with members of an identified group, the individual difference may be a result of privilege, fortune, or circumstances which "cannot be used to negate the role of reservation in remedying the structural disadvantage that certain groups suffer"The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud and A. S. Bopanna was pronouncing the detailed order giving reasons for its January 7 direction to allow the commencement of counselling process for NEET-PG and NEET-UG for 2021-22 admissions on the basis of the existing 27% quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) in the All India Quota.'After N. M. Thomas's case, no constitutional basis to subscribe to the binary of merit and reservation'The bench noted that on behalf of the petitioners, it was urged that at the level of PG courses, a high degree of skill and expertise is required, and thus, such opportunities must be available to the most meritorious and providing any reservation for PG seats would be detrimental to national interest. In this regard, the bench commented that "in effect, a binary was sought to be created between merit and reservation, where reservation becomes antithetical to establishing meritocracy"."This is not a novel argument. There has been a longstanding debate over whether reservation for any class impinges on the idea of merit. In the Constituent Assembly Debates on draft Article 10, which has been incorporated as Article 16 of the Constitution, some members raised concerns on the inclusion of clause (3) to draft Article 10 (now Article 16 (4) of the Constitution) which provided that the State is empowered to make reservation in appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens who, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State. Certain members of the Constituent Assembly argued for the deletion of clause (3)...However, the Constituent Assembly rejected these claims and adopted clause (3) of draft Article 10. Although there was debate on the meaning of ―backward classes‖, it was felt that there must be a provision that enables entry of those communities into administration since they were deprived of such access in the past and formal equality of opportunity would not suffice.31 However, the view that merit or efficiency in service is distinct from concerns of advancement of backward classes persisted for some members...However, many members also recognized that merit cannot be separated from the function of the existing inequalities in society. They envisaged that social justice must be read into the promise of equality of opportunity; otherwise the latter merely advances the interests of the privileged...While these observations were made in the context of employment to public posts, the debate on conceptualisation of reservation as an exception to the principle of merit has relevance in regard to admission to educational institutions as well. The debates in Constituent Assembly were limited to reservation in public posts because reservation in educational institutions was introduced through a subsequent constitutional amendment", ruled the bench.The order further discusses that on its part, the Supreme Court initially subscribed to the binary of merit and reservation; Articles 14, 15(1) and 16(1) were thought to embody the general principle of formal equality, Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) were understood to be exceptions to this general principle, advancing the cause of social justice; the Court sought to balance these competing imperatives. "In such an understanding, merit is equated to formal equality of opportunity which has to be balanced against the concerns of social justice through reservation", notes the bench."In M. ...

Reservation Not At Odds With Merit; Individual Calibre Trascends Performance In Exams : Supreme Court

Mehal Jain

Tags