Latest Update on Court Case in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the law providing 27 per cent quota to OBCs in central educational institutions has to pass the test of equality and fairness.

"The touchstone of rationality and fairness is the test which the law providing reservation has to pass," a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan observed when the Centre contended that quota for the backward classes was recognised by the Constitution.

"Equality and fairness has to be there," the Bench said cautioning that the targeted group of beneficiary comes from the so-called creamy layer.

The Bench also said that traditional occupation by which the persons' caste was recognised could not be the ground in the present scenario to identify the backwardness of a person.

It said many people of other castes were now opening beauty parlours which was the occupation of the people belonging to traditional barbar community.

"The defined occupations are not applicable in the present scenario to identify the socially and educationally Backward Classes," the Bench, which is examining the validity of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, observed.

"The Varna classification cannot apply now," the Bench said.

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium was arguing that it was wrong to say that reservation was total anathema to the Constitution as contended by the anti-quota petitioners.

The court also said that perhaps no systematic survey was done for the identification of backward classes after the 1931 census when Pakistan , Bangladesh were part of India .