An All-Party meeting on the recent quota judgment of the Supreme Court is expected to raise some dust and heat over judicial interventions in legislative and executive decisions in recent times. The core committee of the Congress last week had decided to call this meeting “soon after the SAARC summit”, and it could be as early as April 5.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and several other leaders will be campaigning for the first phase of UP elections that day, but the meeting could still take place in the evening.

Quota champions inside and outside the UPA are planning raise pending demands for the National Judicial Commission and introduction of Indian Judicial Services, complete with reservations.

Some parties, including Congress allies, have not taken lightly to the Congress opposition to a caste census. The Congress has said a caste census will only divide the country and therefore the party does not support it. However, parties such as the LJP and JD(U) are demanding a caste survey, where as the DMK and PMK are not opposed to the demand.

“Reservation in judiciary is a must. We will take up this demand before the all-party meeting and the UPA. On the lines of IAS and IPS, there should be an Indian Judicial Services,” LJP leader and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan told The Indian Express. Paswan said the judiciary in India did not reflect the social composition of the country and is therefore a lag on true democratisation.

“Let there be a caste survey and the truth will come out clear,” said Paswan. “I am also talking to like-minded parties such as the DMK on the issue,” said Paswan, who as Social Justice Minister had presided over the implementation of Mandal Commission report in 1991. The LJP leader said the Centre must take necessary steps to ensure that the proposed OBC reservation in higher educational institutions should start from the next year—the SC order has stayed its implementation. “OBC reservation in educational institutions is already late by several decades,” he said.

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