Is reservation a legal right in India?

REVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: Is Reservation a Legal Right in India?

Reservation in India is the custom of giving the underprivileged a portion of the legislative, administrative, and educational seat allocation. To guarantee equality of chances, the Indian constitution has clauses allowing reservation for backward groups of people including SCs, STs, and OBCs. Still, different people see reserve as a legal entitlement or as the need to change the present reservation system.

Constitutional Basis for Reservation

The Indian constitution also allows for Articles 15(4) and 16(4) which provide that the state can make special provisions for the SCs, STs, and OBC students. This includes reservations in education facilities, employment opportunities in government sectors, and the legislative bodies. The Honourable Supreme Court has also held that reservation is constitutionally valid, it does not violate the equal right under Article 14 of the constitution of India. In the Indra Sawhney case, the court held that reservation is not a violation of the equality clause and that the Constitution does not require exclusion for the establishment of equality for the socially backward classes. Reservation is characterized as an enfranchising measure aimed at raising the standard of living of the depressed classes to the status of the forward castes.

Therefore, there is no ambiguity regarding the legal provisions supporting reservation. The constitution makers understood the deeply rooted social justice in their society and knew that reservation was the only way to allow the socially oppressed to get proper opportunities in the social mobility ladder.

Is it a legal right to:

However, there are some controversies concerning reservations about its position as an enforceable legal right such as fundamental rights. The Supreme Court has affirmed on fact that reservation is not a right that can be demanded by any community in the country. The discretion to grant reservation rests on the state while the groups that are entitled to this right as well as the proportion in which the right should be offered also lies on the state. For example, while Other Backward Classes or OBCs received reservations only in 1990, the Mandal Commission recommendation, was years behind SCs and STs.

Furthermore, reservation has been limited by the Supreme Court to 50 percent to avoid turning into oppressive and to not impact of rights of the category. The state also gets to decide on the ˜creamy layer'- those segments of the given groups that are deemed to be well-off enough not to need a reservation. These made me understand that reservation is an enabling provision for the doctrine of substantive equality as opposed to the notion that it is an absolute legal right. It is dependent on the whim of the state as per the realities of caste discrimination in India.

Here the following points, why reservation should be a legal right are explained in detail as follows:

However as, per most scholars, the, Ts and OBCs community's socio-economic status at present is still inferior to the general public after getting seventy years of independence. India's constitution envisioned the country as one that was liberated from the shackles of the caste system that dominated the society. Thus, reservation holds the greatest potential for the emancipation of suppressed castes in the Indian social hierarchy. By stripping reservation the character of enforceable legal right at par with fundamental rights, it makes it all a very vulnerable state policy that has no certainty of being implemented depending on the government in power. When a hostile government comes into power, there is the prospect of paring down reservation percentages.

Reservations shall therefore not be eroded by the legal systems and will effectively empower the marginalized groups once and for all through the recognition of reservation as a constitutionally protected legal right. It means that it will not only establish social justice as one of the pillars of the Indian constitution but also not depend on the state's discretion. Most importantly, it will ensure oppressed groups' reintegration into the social fabric and advance the cause of national development “ the vision this country's founders fought tirelessly for, as the framers of the Indian constitution did.

The Way Forward

At the same time, it is possible to find both the pluses and the minuses in the arguments of the legal status of reservation in India. Based on the current social realities that still show caste discrimination as a reality in our social political and economic life even after seventy years of affirmative action for SCs and STs there are some valid reasons to treat the reservation as a legal right. However, an unconditional reservation policy also has some disadvantages including the promotion of caste associations and the principle of efficiency. The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between “Reservation must go on as a policy to enable the socially excluded but it has to be accompanied by reasonable restrictions to prevent abuses; the policy has to be dynamic changing from time to time in the light of fresh data/ new inequalities but steadily moving towards a society free from caste prejudices and discriminations.

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