The concept of reservation implies mediocrity, said a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday as it justified exclusion of SC/ST/OBC reservation in the super specialty teaching posts at AIIMS.
Deciding a petition filed by Faculty Association of AIIMS, which challenged two resolutions of AIIMS (January 11, 1983 and May 27, 1994) to introduce reservation policy for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor and above, a five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir reiterated the Mandal judgement (Indra Sawhney v/s Union of India) of 1992.
A nine-judge Bench in its decision had observed, “In certain services in respect of certain posts, application of reservation may not be advisable in regard to various technical posts in super specialty in medicine, engineering and other scientific and technical posts.”
AIIMS and Central Government argued that the observation did not bind them as it was only an opinion expressed by court. But the Bench, also comprising Justices SS Nijjar, Ranjan Gogoi, MY Eqbal and Vikramajit Sen said, “We cannot ascribe to such a view since the very concept of reservation implies mediocrity and we will have to take note of the caution indicated in Indra Sawhney’s case.”
However, the court did not dismiss the AIIMS resolutions on this count. It referred the matter to Centre’s court and said, “We impress upon the Central and State Governments to take appropriate steps in accordance with the views expressed in Indra Sawhney’s case and in this case as also the other decisions referred to above, keeping in mind the provisions of Article 335 of Constitution.” This provision in the Constitution allowed Centre/States to make reservation for backward classes/castes/tribes in specified services or posts.
The premier medical institute argued that the reservation policy enabled meritorious students who had done their super specialty course without reservation to be given a fair representation in teaching posts.
The Centre supported this view. But the Faculty Association submitted that since Indra Sawhney laid down the guidelines for the Government to follow, the moot point was to provide the best candidates to occupy the super specialty posts since it entailed higher degree of skill without compromising on quality and expertise of the service.