Special Correspondent
Reservation being misread as anti-poverty measure: expert
Bangalore: The recent Supreme Court decision to exclude "creamy layer" of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the benefits of reservations runs contrary to the spirit of reservation enshrined in the Constitution, Ravivarma Kumar, former Chairman of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission, has said.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the Federation of Dalits, Backward Classes, Minorities and Secular and Progressive Associations of Karnataka, he argued that the judgment should be reviewed since it was liable to further widen social inequalities. Judiciary was misreading reservation as an "anti-poverty measure" while it was a measure to "secure adequacy of representation", Mr. Kumar said. Making a presentation on how the question of reservation had been dealt with in various Supreme Court judgments since 1951, he said one could trace a constant tussle between Legislature and Judiciary on the matter of social justice. Talking about the Supreme Court’s insistence that reservation should be backed by "quantifiable data to show backwardness and inadequacy", he asked how it could be furnished in the absence of up-to-date statistics.
The meeting was presided over by the former Law Minister A. Lakshmi Sagar. Representatives of various organisationstook part in the meeting.
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