New Delhi, December 14 The government today deferred the introduction of the constitutional amendment bill that will enable reservations in unaided private educational institutions. The bill was to be moved in the Lok Sabha, but concerns raised by MPs belonging to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and the Left parties forced HRD minister Arjun Singh to defer its introduction. The bill is likely to come up next week.

The amendment will introduce a new, fifth clause to Article 15 of the Constitution. In effect, this will reverse an SC order that declared as unconstitutional quotas in educational institutions not aided by the government.

The forum of OBC MPs suspected that the amendment would not provide for OBC reservations where as the CPI(M)’s concern was the exempting of minority unaided institutions from reserving seats for SC/STs and OBCs. The Marxists are locked in a running battle with various religious bodies in Kerala over the question of reservations in educational institutions run by the them. ‘‘The concept of minority has regional variations and we would like this to be considered while making the amendment,’’ said Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M).

The BJP has already declared its opposition to the bill’s provision to exclude the minority institutions. However, the government could still get the necessary two-thirds majority, given the support to the provision from NDA partners such as the JD(U) and TDP. Government sources said the BJP was taken into confidence while the bill was being drafted and they had not opposed the provision then.

The OBC MPs were mollified after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi explained the wordings of the proposed fifth clause. The clause says: ‘‘Nothing shall prevent the state from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the SCs or the STs in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, other than minority institutions referred to in clause 1 of Article 30.’’

The Govt assured the OBC MPs that this provision is sufficient for any state to declare any OBC as ‘‘socially and educationally backward’’, and reserve seats for them. Indeed, the present OBC quotas are protected by exactly the same wordings in clause 4 of Article 15, the MPs were told.

The CPI(M)’s concern is that many educational institutions plead they are minority-run in Kerala merely to deny reservations. Its student wing, the SFI, has been opposing this. However, the party does not want to exclude the minority institutions altogether, as assembly elections are round the corner.

‘‘We are only saying there should be some clarity as far the status of minority educational institutions are concerned,’’ said Basu.

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