Making clear that it was not averse to the Centre’s demand for referring the matter of 27 per cent OBC reservation in higher education institutions to a Constitution Bench, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court today asked parties to the case to formulate their questions which may be considered by a larger Bench.

Giving this direction, the Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and L S Panta — it was the same Bench that had stayed implementation of OBC quota from this academic year — posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow. The hearing was advanced from August to May eight after the intervention of the Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

Appearing before the Bench, which resumed hearing this morning, Solicitor General G Vahanvati made a fresh plea for referring the quota case to a Constitution Bench. Vahanvati’s plea was that a two-judge Bench cannot adjudicate the matter as it involved substantive question of Constitutional law.

The Centre took the stand that since the matter involved great public interest concerning the country, a larger Bench must take it up. According to Vahanvati, the law was enacted by Parliament and scope of judicial review as such was limited.

The Bench, while making clear that it was not averse to the idea of referring the matter to a larger Bench, wondered why this required reference to a Constitution Bench as many Acts were routinely challenged in the courts — in other words, the Constitutional validity of many statutory laws were challenged but these were not necessarily referred to the Constitution Bench.

... contd.