Readers will remember, in January 2019, Parliament approved the Central Government’s proposal to reserve 10% of the seats in educational institutions and posts in jobs in the public sector, for the economically weaker segments of society (10% quota law). The Union Cabinet is said to have approved the proposal to amend the Constitution in this regard on the 7th of that month. It was tabled in the Lok Sabha on the 8th, debated and passed the same day.
The Rajya Sabha gave its approval after a debate on the 9th. The Hon’ble President of India gave his assent to this Bill four days later on 12th January. This legislation was notified as The Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019 in the Official Gazette, the same day. On 14th January, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment issued a Gazette notification stating that the law had come into force.
A path-breaking proposal to amend the Constitution for providing reservations in educational institutions and government jobs was moved, approved and written into the Constitution in seven days flat! Of course, it does not break the previous record of the 39th Constitutional amendment that was approved by Parliament and ratified by more than 50% of the State Legislatures at break neck speed in four days. Law-making in the digital age, where information travels at the speed of light, seems to be somewhat laggardly, compared to the 1970s when jet aircraft barely managed to break the sound barrier.
1) First, Section 8(1)(i) of the RTI Act – the exemption relating to Cabinet papers – which the CPIO quoted in extenso in his reply itself permits the disclosure of all the information I had sought, after the matter is complete or over. That is the meaning and requirement of the first proviso underlying that exemption. The 10% quota law has already come into force. Nevertheless, the CPIO seems to think that the matter is neither complete or over. I hope I will not have to wait until the objectives of the 10% quota law are achieved. Given the fact that similar quota laws for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs), which are almost eight decades old, have not yet achieved their objectives, I may not be alive until the 10% quota law achieves its purpose. Despite quoting the proviso requiring proactive disclosure of Cabinet papers, in his reply, the CPIO does not seem to have applied his mind to its import, thanks to the haste with which he made his decision on the information request.
On 17th January, 2019, three days after the 10% Quota amendment came into force, the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment issued an Office Memorandum (OM) detailing the criteria for excluding persons who would not be eligible to lay claim to the 10% reservation of seats and posts. Interestingly, this OM is labelled: “For Internal Circulation Only” and cannot be located on the Ministry’s website. However, it is included in multiple OMs issued by other Ministries and Departments to entities under their charge for identifying posts that may be reserved under the 10% quota law. I was able to access this OM on the website of the Indian Institute of Management, Vishakhapatnam. Why is the nodal Ministry for implementing this law not publishing the OM on its own website is a mystery?
Under Section 4 of The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, read with its appended Schedule, these institutions of excellence are exempted from reserving seats for members of the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Other backward Classes also. However, graduates of these institutions will be eligible for reservation in jobs that match their training. For example, the Department of Space has issued an OM to institutions such as ISRO, SDSC and VSSC all of whom are involved in launching or tracking satellites in space, to take necessary action to implement the 10% EWS quota in jobs.
So a student who is eligible for this EWS quota will not get the benefit of reservation in admissions while studying at any of these eight institutions of excellence, but can lay claim to jobs reserved in this category in ISRO, SDSC or VSSC, after graduation! A simple question that requires a convincing answer is — when students of EWS category are expected to make it to these institutions of excellence, purely on the basis of merit, why should jobs be reserved for them after graduation? Merit should be the principle for recruitment as well. Or am I not getting the logic behind this dichotomy? I hope readers will enlighten me on the logic of this contradiction.