As the Supreme Court today rejected the Centre’s plea to vacate its stay on implementation of 27 per cent OBC quota in higher education institutions from this year, official sources confirmed to The Indian Express that the Government had asked Parliament secretariat a day earlier to list the Bill on OBC quota in unaided institutions in the agenda for the monsoon session.

Government sources said that HRD Minister Arjun Singh had asked for inclusion of “The Unaided Private Educational Institutions (Reservation of seats in admission and regulation of admission and fee) Bill, 2007” in the agenda for the session starting Monday.

In fact, Arjun Singh hinted at this “development” today when he said, “We are ready with a new Bill for OBC quota in unaided institutions.” But he did not elaborate.

Earlier in the day, declining the Centre’s plea to vacate the stay on quota in higher education institutions, a five-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, said, “In this situation, we are not interfering with the interim order of the Division Bench.” The Bench said that hearing on the main petitions challenging the legality of the Act would begin now.

In March, the Division Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat, who is now part of the Constitution Bench, and Justice L S Panta had ordered a stay on 27 per cent OBC quota from this year.

The five-judge Bench did not accept Solicitor General G E Vahanvati’s submission that the Government may be allowed to implement quota for seats approved by the competent authority in many institutes. It also did not yield to the Government suggestion that quota may be allowed by excluding the creamy layer.

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