Wholesale reservation frustrates very purpose of reservation: SC

The SC ordered the state government to examine the data of the last few years and come to a realistic finding as to what should be the extent of these reservations

The Supreme Court has said that state governments should not indulge in wholesale reservation for it frustrated the very purpose of quota and it has been held to be unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari (since retired) and Sudhanshu Dhulia said, though reservation in favour of residents is permissible, yet reservation to the extent of 75% of the total seats makes it a wholesale reservation, which has been held in Pradeep Jain (1984) to be unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

“A wholesale reservation as we have seen is not serving any purpose rather it frustrates the very purpose of the reservation. This shall be kept in mind by the authorities while taking a decision in this matter, which shall be done within two months from today,” the bench said.

An appeal was filed by Veena Vadini Teachers Training Institute challenging Madhya Pradesh High Court order, which dismissed its plea against the government policy of May 12, 2022 (Admission Process and Guiding Principles 2022-2023) on the ground that it was violative of Articles 14, 15 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.

It claimed the government had made 75% of the seats reserved for the residents of Madhya Pradesh, which was not permissible in law.

Citing figures of last two years, it said although the entire 25% seats allocated to the “outside” candidates have been filled, but almost all of the 75% of seats, reserved for the residents of Madhya Pradesh, have remained unfilled.

The bench noted that in the Pradeep Jain matter (1984), the top court had cautioned against large scale reservation under the head ie residents of the state, and termed it as “wholesale” reservations.

In the present case, the bench said, “Since the academic session for the year 2022-23 has already commenced, we would refrain from interfering in the matter but we direct the State of Madhya Pradesh to reappreciate this entire aspect. Keeping 75% of the seats reserved for the residents of Madhya Pradesh is too high a percentage”.

The court ordered the state government to examine the data of the last few years, in order to come to a realistic finding as to what should be the extent of these reservations.