Excessive quotas violate equality mandate: SC

Be it reservation or evaluation,excessiveness in either would result in violation of the constitutional mandate, the judgment authored by Justice Misra observed.

Noting that excessive reservation violates the constitutional mandate of equality,the Supreme Court has said that interests of certain sections of the society cannot be favoured over the interests of every citizen of the entire society.

In a judgment delivered on Friday,the Supreme Court said: Article 16(4) which protects the interests of certain sections of the society has to be balanced against Article 16(1) which protects the interests of every citizen of the entire society. They should be harmonised because they are restatements of the principle of equality under Article 14.

A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Misra said state governments can carve out quotas for SC/STs and OBCs in their region only if they can back their exercise of power with precise data on the backwardness of the communities. Be it reservation or evaluation,excessiveness in either would result in violation of the constitutional mandate, the judgment authored by Justice Misra observed.

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The judgment dealt with two amendments brought by the Uttar Pradesh government to enable reservation and accelerated promotion for SC/STs and OBCs in the UP public services.

Both Rule 8A,which dealt with accelerated promotion in the UP Government Servants Seniority Rules,1991,and Section 3(7),which prescribed quota during promotion in the UP Public Servants (Reservation for Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes) Act,1994,were quashed as ultra vires the Constitution.

The UP government had moved the SC after the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court quashed the two provisions in 2011.

The Supreme Court Bench said the state governments amendments were not backed by any quantifiable data.

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