Author: Legal Correspondent
Publication: The Hindu
Date: September 13, 2007
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/13/stories/2007091354561200.htm
"It is time for the court to put restrictions on the number of backward castes as the presence of caste is being felt in every field," senior counsel K.K. Venugopal said on Wednesday. "The situation in this country is once a backward caste, always a backward caste. We have advanced tremendously in various walks of life but the claim for backward caste status is increasing. The advancement of socially backward classes is lip service and just an illusion," he told a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan.
The Bench, which included Justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker, R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, is hearing a batch of petitions questioning the 93rd Constitution Amendment and the OBC quota law enacted under it.
Mr. Venugopal, appearing for the Resident Doctors Association, said that in 1950, the number of backward castes was 1,373; in 1955, as per the first Backward Classes Commission, it was 2,399; in 1980, as per the Mandal Commission, the number was 3,763 and in 2006, as per the National Commission for Backward Classes, it was 5,013 (without the figures for most of the Union Territories).
At this juncture, Justice Raveendran asked counsel, "Is there a complete list of all castes in India?" When Mr. Venugopal said no such list was available, the judge said, "It is strange that when we do not have an outer limit we are adding more castes in the list."
Mr. Venugopal said, "The 'creamy layer' eats into reservation and a section of the backward castes remains a backward class despite the country making economic advancement."
U.P. results
Citing the recent Uttar Pradesh election results, he said: "The Bahujan Samaj Party came to power with 206 seats with a mere difference of four per cent of votes over its nearest rival, Samajwadi Party. The only reason for adding more and more castes can be elections in mind. The policy of reservation is intended for obtaining votes at the elections. So far as backward classes are concerned, by giving them the benefit on a quid pro quo basis it would be possible for a political party to obtain a large percentage of votes as each caste consists of an identifiable group of voters."
Poll-eve additions
Mr. Venugopal, who argued in the Mandal case, said, "At that time I pointed out how in Tamil Nadu before every election there happens to be an addition of one or two castes in the list of backward class to secure vote of a particular caste en bloc."
When counsel pointed out that "to this day not a single caste has been removed from the backward caste list," Justice Pasayat said "removing a caste from the list is as difficult as asking unauthorised occupants to go."
Evils of caste system
Senior counsel K. Parasaran, appearing for the Centre/Tamil Nadu, intervened and said: "What we have to do is to destroy the evils of caste system and not castes. To some extent in towns and urban areas, there is inter-caste marriage and there is no prevalence of the evil. But in many rural areas throughout the country social boycott of some castes is still prevalent."