The observation by the Supreme Court that reservation should cease for higher medical studies might not force the state government to comply. Since the court has said that state governments need to take action considering current circumstances, the observation of the court seems more of a suggestion than a directive.
The court said that the government can consider the need for reservation in higher education and take appropriate action. The Supreme Court can say only so much because it cannot cancel reservation as long as section 15(4) of the constitution is in force.
If the government, based on the observation of the Supreme Court, decides to do away with reservation, the action would be anti-constitutional. On the other hand, the government is not obliged to comply with the SC's observation because only if section 15(4) is amended can the government take a decision in this regard. In short, reservation for jobs and education cannot be modified by the government.
It is believed that backward communities are still lagging in education even now, as ratified by people's representatives.
If merit is made the sole yardstick in education, then it would mean that higher education would exclude many people from so-called lower castes. Merit is arbitrary because a high caste student having 85 per cent marks is more meritorious than one with 84 per cent, but that does not mean that the person with 84 per cent is not meritorious per se. Further, how can one say that just because a higher caster person with higher marks did not get admission, a lower-caste person is not meritorious? It is not correct to say that giving preference to a person with low marks would affect the educational system adversely. Experience shows that reservation will not affect higher education in any way.
That merit should be the only yardstick in higher education is not therefore in the national interest. Can anyone say that all socially-backward communities are in the forefront as of now? As long as backward communities exist, there cannot be social equality. In such a case, if reservation is removed, backward classes would go further back and forward classes would monopolise higher education.
(The author is a former vice chancellor of Calicut University)