Scrap reservation, merit should be basis of higher education: Supreme Court to govt

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that national interest requires scrapping all forms of reservation in institutions of higher education, and appealed to the Centre to take objective steps in this regard.

As per The Indian Express, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and PC Pant noted that the central and state governments have not made merit the primary criteria for admissions into super-specialty courses despite several reminders. The ground reality remains that reservation often holds sway over merit, the daily vited the bench as saying.

“The fond hope has remained in the sphere of hope… The said privilege remains unchanged, as if (it is) to compete with eternity,” the bench said.

The SC made these observations while ruling on petitions challenging the eligibility criteria for admissions into certain super-specialty medical courses in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. As per the criteria, candidates having domicile in three states can only appear for the examination.

 The bench also recalled two judgments in 1988 in which the top court had said “there should really be no reservation”.

“We hope and trust that the Government of India and the state governments shall seriously consider this aspect of the matter without delay and appropriate guidelines shall be evolved…” these judgments stated.

The two-judge bench said they had the same messages to give after 27 years, reported the daily.

 “Therefore, we echo the same feeling and reiterate the aspirations of others so that authorities can objectively assess and approach the situation so that the national interest can become paramount,” the court said.

The daily reported that in the present case, the court refused to interfere with the admission process in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since a Presidential Order has created an exception and the constitutionality of this Order had not been challenged, however it agreed to further examine the situation in Tamil Nadu.