This post will be my longest up to date. But I request you to spare some time for reading this completely as this is an issue everyone needs to know about.

The reservation of 27% seats in Government funded higher education institutions (like IIMs, IITs, AIIMS) has been upheld by the 5-Judge bench including the Chief Justice of India with the catch that the creamy layer should be excluded. I am summarizing everything I feel about this judgement in this post.

The creamy layer definition by the bench is pretty thorough with nearly every adequately earning professional left out(except that it is a bit hard on film and media professionals). The complete creamy layer definition will be available in tomorrow’s papers. Refer from there as it will take too much space in this post. The conditions have ensured that it will be very difficult to fake as a non-creamy layer OBC student as you cannot hide your parent’s education easily. Also the list will be reviewed every five years.

There is a widespread opinion that such a reservation will divide the country’s youth and destroy the quality of future professionals but what has happened now is inevitable. The amount of reservation is also considered extremely high considering the last caste based census in India was in 1931. But then caste ratio changes are not going to be too drastic even after a century, unless something dramatic has happened. Nothing of that sort has occurred in the past 70 years, so the government could be justified in using that census. The reservation became 27% thanks to the supreme court barrier of not more than 50% reservation. If not, only God knows what percentage would have satisfied the politicians.

Many feel that socially and economically backward people are not getting a fair chance against those who go to highly paid coaching classes. The difference can now be more than erased with this reservation excluding the creamy layer. If some more conditions are added along with the current judgement, I feel that social and economic justice can be achieved while at the same time satisfying vote-mongering politicians.

First: These creamy layer conditions can never be changed by any amendment or any parliamentary bill with that power reserved only for the 9-judge bench of the supreme court. This will ensure that all the research and work done by the judges doesn’t go to waste because of the politicians’ craze for populist measures. It will also prevent the creamy layer from lobbying for a change in the quota restrictions.

Second: The creamy layer conditions should be extended to the SC/ST quota of 22.5% as well. Economic justice should be done for impoverished SC/ST as well. This will prevent wealthy SC/STs from entering higher education unfairly.

Third: The court should also specify a minimum cut-off for quota students as well( just like what IIM-A and IIM-C did last year). This will prevent all non-creamy layer OBC students who have only just passed the previous grade from entering into higher education. Though this might look a bit unfair to these non-creamy layer students, it will ultimately save them precious time,money and self-confidence as it will be very difficult for them to survive for long in such high quality institutions. A case in point being the number of SC/ST students in IITs who are struggling to complete their course.This will also ensure that our country’s future professionals are no mugs in their field.

Fourth: If after this expunger, some reserved category seats are left unfilled after a particular date (that might probably be the case in many institutions because of this huge share of reserved seats), those seats should be thrown open to the general category. If this is not done, the above judgement will only result in a reduction in the number of seats. This addition will also ensure that at least some of the OC students get justice.

Fifth: The court should consider the number of such seats that are thrown to the general category and should device a mechanism to reduce the reservation in steps proportional to these numbers. When the reservation reaches 0% (that might well be an unfulfilled dream), India would have achieved complete social and economic justice and would have a generation of youth with equal opportunities.

Sixth: Finally, this judgement on reservation should not be forced onto private multi-national companies ( even if it is done to private educational institutions) in future.Companies have a right to choose their employees and interfering in this process to more than a reasonable extent will cause economic loss due to pull-outs as well as damage India’s reputation worldwide.

If all the above amendments could be added to today’s judgement, then I think this could well be a step in the right direction. The parties would have delivered on their election promises and all the members of the public would have got similar if not equal opportunities.These steps could well result in dissolution of the powers of the legislative in the quota issue(as some might argue), but as this situation involves a lot of vested interests for the legislative this could well be left with the judiciary with periodic check by the legislative, the executive and the press. Thanks for reading up to here and you can give your opinions as comments.