Present Trend of Reservations Reinvigorating Caste System, Says Madras HC

New Delhi: The Madras high court on August 25 observed that the present trend of reservations is reinvigorating the caste system and vouched for "merit" as a decider of opportunities.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu made several observations likening the perpetuation of the quota system to a lack of "maturity" of the country, LiveLaw has reported.

The bench was hearing a contempt of court petition moved by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party against the Union government over the latter's announcement of 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes in medical college seats. The high court dismissed the plea, but made the observations on the reservation system as a footnote.

The high court said that instead of "wiping away" the caste system, the system at present was extending action which was to supposedly have been in place for a short duration.

"Rather than the caste system being wiped away, the present trend seems to perpetuate it by endlessly extending a measure that was to remain only for a short duration to cover the infancy and, possibly, the adolescence of the Republic," the bench said.

It then said the nation ought to be "more mature".

"Though the life of a nation state may not be relatable to the human process of ageing, but at over-70, it ought, probably, to be more mature."

LiveLaw noted that the high court said:

"[I]t is high time that citizens are empowered so that 'merit may ultimately decide matters as to admission, appointment and promotion' instead of the reservation system."

The question of "merit" – posited in recent discourse as an antonym for affirmative action – as a true determinant of who gets to avail themselves of opportunities of education and employment has long since been debated.

In a piece on The Wire titled 'Does ‘Merit’ Have a Caste?', academic Rajat Roy notes that seeing merit as a neutral qualifier justifies the exclusion of Dalit people.

Also read: Interview | 'There Is Nothing Meritorious about IITs,' Says Prof Who Resigned Over Casteism

The bench also observed that the Constituent Assembly's rationale behind bringing reservation has been overturned with repeated amendments. It also said reservation has been introduced for denominations where the caste system does not exist.

"The entire concept of reservation that appears to have been addressed by the Constituent Assembly while framing the Constitution may have been turned on its head by repeated amendments and the veritable reinvigoration of the caste system and even extending it to denominations where it does not exist."

The Constituent Assembly, notably, discarded proposals to permit reservation in a time-bound frame and envisaged its continuity until factors causing social backwardness e.g. non-representation or poor share in the state services come to an end, as legal scholar Kailash Jeenger has noted.

In her analysis for The Wire, medical practitioner at the Government Theni Medical College, Yazhini P.M., noted that questioning reservation brought with it a heavy price – citing the death by suicide of Payal Tadvi.

The author also notes in the article, in an observation relevant to the high court's, that the onus of proving the utility of the reservation system does not rest on those who could hope to gain from it.

"...[M]akes one wonder, upon whose onus does the need for understanding constitutionally mandated affirmative action to ensure equity and equality for the historically oppressed majority in the Indian union lie? Is the onus upon the historically privileged minority who traditionally have access to education, network and patronage due to their exalted position in the Varna system? Or is it upon the socially oppressed to gather support from the privileged every single time they are denigrated for the use of a constitutional provision?"

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