MUMBAI: As the pro and anti-reservation debate rages on, a flashback on the issue is perhaps necessary.

 

On November 30, 1948, the founding father of the Constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had a note of caution for future governments—large scale reservation quotas could destroy the rule of equality of opportunity. He advocated that reservation quotas be consistent with Article 10 (now Article 14) of the constitution and must be confined to minority of seats.

 

Dr Ambedkar argued that theoretically it was good to have principle of equality of opportunity, but he said there must also be a provision for the entry of certain communities outside the administrative set up. He gave a hypothetical ratio of 70 per cent reserved seats and 30 per cent for unreserved category. His argument then was, “Could anybody say that the reservation of 30 per cent as open to general competition would be satisfactory from the point of view of giving effect to the first principle, namely, that there shall be equality of opportunity?” He said if large number of seats were to be reserved, an individual could go to court on the premise that the rule of equality of opportunity had been destroyed.

 

The court too will decide if the state had acted in a reasonable and prudent manner. While taking part in the debate Lokanath Misra (Orissa) had then argued that reservation was not a fundamental right for any citizen to claim and that rights like Right to Employment ought to go by merit alone.