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Why can’t reservation be poverty-based, wonders SC

Taking the discussion on the validity of the quota law for OBCs the Supreme Court asked why reservation in jobs or education couldn’t be poverty-based.

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NEW DELHI: Taking the discussion on the validity of the quota law for OBCs to the common man’s level, the Supreme Court (SC) asked on Tuesday why reservation in jobs or education couldn’t be poverty-based.

Will it be necessary to conduct a survey if a government wants to provide reservation to the poor when it is a well-known fact that a majority are poor, a five-judge constitution bench headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan asked anti-quota petitioners’ counsel Harish Salve.

Salve, a former solicitor general, promptly replied that poverty couldn’t be a suspect ground.

“Poverty is free from race, caste, religion and gender. It cuts across everything,” he argued. “Race, caste, religion and gender are suspected classification,” he added.

He pointed out another problem. When a special provision is made to advance certain classes, its beneficiaries must be identified.

In such a situation, it wouldn’t be possible to ensure that these measures will remove the backwardness of these classes, the counsel said.

Earlier, Salve said the Centre should desist from tilting the balance of society on grounds of caste and religion while enacting the reservation policy.

“If the government tilts the balance between citizens on suspect grounds of castes, religion, creed  and gender, it’s the duty of the constitution court to see that the rule of equality is not subverted,” he added.

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