P.A. Haridasan, Petitioner v. State of Kerala

and others, Respondents.

DR. AR. LAKSHMANAN AND S. SANKARASUBBAN, JJ.

Constitution of India, Articles 14, 16(4) -Appointment - Caste benefit - Economic criteria is not guiding principle for denying benefit if candidate actually belongs to that caste.

The economic criterion is not the guiding principle to deny a person the benefit of Scheduled Caste if he actually belongs to that caste.

The question of caste depends upon the caste in which the person is born. Unless there is evidence to show that a person has given up the membership of a caste and joins some other caste, he should be deemed to be a caste in which he is born. The crucial point is to ascertain the caste at the time of birth ..(Source: AIR 2000 Kerala 313)

Reservation for Women Should Follow Universal Reservation

Shahabuddin to The Hindu, 12 Oct., 2000

Madhu Kishwar (Representing Women, 12 October, 2000) finally lets the cut out of the bag by seeking legitimatization of the idea that women form a social group through reservation in the legislatures. The fact is that women do not form a social group or a community, or a caste, or a class and that they form inseparable and essential parts of as many social groups as distinguishable in human society. Granted they have some common interests, so have many, cutting across barriers of religion, caste, class, but in history there has been no human society, even the most economically and socially homogenous, which had two groups of men and women facing each other!

It is irrelevant to speak of special quotas for every definable category. For a legislature, only the question of representation of all definable social groups is relevant and since 50% of each social group consists of women, there is a case for the representation of women in each group.

Whatever the pattern of representation, all women members of legislature - whatever their group  or party - are likely to bond together on all matter of common interest, as they do even now, e.g. on the question of reservation for women.

Broadly speaking, equitable representation of all social groups in legislation should be ensured by reservation or by proportional representation and nomination by parties but in Indian condition, given the wide disparities among various social groups, no better placed group should be permitted to take advantage of gender to augment its ranks.

Reservation Until Retirement Against Justice Editorial, Indian Express, 24 August, 2000

Reservation is a holy cow in this country ... It will not be a surprise if the demand made by the Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) to extend reservation to the judiciary and the armed forces is lapped up by all the parties ... (Under recent) amendment ... an SC/ST employee, who enters service on the basis of relaxation in qualification, will continue to get such benefits till he reaches, perhaps, the pinnacle of the service. It is not only against natural justice but also against principles of competition, merit and bureaucratic harmony.

If relaxation in the qualifying marks for promotion can be granted to SC/ST categories, there is no reason why the backward classes should be left out ...

Nobody pays any heed to the fact that reservation was envisaged by the Constitution as a temporary measure. It's also not insignificant that no caste or group which has benefited from reservation for the last 50 years has stood up to say that reservation has improved its lot and has put it on a level-playing field. Worse, the prospect of the Mandal report being cited to demand reservations now in the private sector as well is too real to be scoffed at.