After two weeks of consultations with allies, the Opposition and within the UPA — presided by the PMO — the Government is all set to approach the Supreme Court to ask for a vacation of its stay order on the 27% OBC quotas in higher education.

“Whatever has to be done should be done quickly. Our law officers are deciding on the petition that will be filed in the Supreme Court in a day or two,” Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said today. After the two-day conference of State Education Ministers, Singh also said, states agreed that the 27% OBC quotas should be implemented this academic session.

Sources said the Centre will tell the SC that the 1931 Census was used “not for identification” of OBCs but for a calculation of their population percentage. It will make the point that excluding the creamy layer from employment is no justification for doing the same in education since OBCs begin earning in their jobs while they have to “spend” during their education.

The Centre will also underline that the new OBC quota law protects the number of non-reserved category seats from any reduction. There is no fair ground for grievance on the part of general students that if there had been no reservation for OBCs, they would have been able to get 77.5% of the increased number of seats. If there were no reservation for OBCs, there would have been no such expansion at present, the reply is said to argued.

... contd.