RESERVATION: PROVIDING OR PREVENTING JUSTICE
AUTHOR – ADVOCATE SIYA, STUDENT AT DEPARTMENT OF LAW, PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA
BEST CITATION – ADVOCATE SIYA, RESERVATION: PROVIDING OR PREVENTING JUSTICE, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (14) OF 2025, PG. 508-513, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344. DOI – https://doi.org/10.65393/DKRO3417
INTRODUCTION
The spirit of equality pervades the provisions of the Constitution of India, as the main aim of the founders of the Constitution was to create an egalitarian society wherein social, economic and political justice prevailed and equality of status and opportunity are made available to all.[1] Our forefathers while making the Constitution back in 1950 had a basic goal for the Constitution in mind and that was to provide the future generation a classless society. Caste-based reservation was a provision made just to compensate for the class system that dominated the traditional Indian society and to give a chance to the down trodden. It is one concept that has since beginning being taken in its wrong sense and till date followed in an abysmal manner. Rather than being an instrument of promoting equality it has become a major Roadblock for equality. And without transforming the vertical inequality in society into horizontal equality, democracy will have no meaning.[2]
Originally reservations of seats in educational institutions and jobs in government and public sector services, etc were only about 22%, 20% for Scheduled Castes ( SCs) and 2% for Scheduled Tribes ( STs ). In 1989 by one stroke of the pen the then Prime Minister V.P.Singh added another 27.5 % for OBCs (Other Backward Castes e.g. Yadavs, Kurmis,etc ), by implementing the Mandal Commission Report, making a total of 49.5%.[3] The whole constitution has been framed to the positive discrimination in favour of the down trodden but that itself promotes casteism while the depressed classes still don’t get social justice.
In this backdrop, the real question that arises is that has the goal of the Constitution makers been fulfilled, or the existence of system of reservation is like the existence of caste system in traditional India? Have the down trodden been provided an access to justice or has their position further degraded? Is the Indian society in reality moving towards a classless society as the Constitution makers aimed at, or towards a further division of the society (in the Light of Hardik Patel’s demand for inclusion of Patidar caste in the OBC category, or the Jats to be provided a further reservation). The goal of reservation in India has been to bring about an improvement in the welfare who, historically, have been economically and socially depressed. But, have they really benefitted or will they benefit in the future?
[1] Available online at http://www.iasir.net Reservation Policy and Indian Constitution in India
[2] http://lawmin.nic.in/ncrwc/finalreport/v2b1-2ch9.htm
[3] http://justicekatju.blogspot.in/2015/04/caste-reservations-in-india-originally.html