Right to reservation isn’t a fundamental right

While adjudicating a clutch of cases on quota for OBC candidates in Tamil Nadu’s medical colleges Supreme Court of India declared that Right to reservation isn’t a fundamental right. It ruled that nobody can claim right to reservation as a fundamental right, and hence not giving the quota benefits cannot be construed as a violation of any constitutional right.

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Key-Points:

In Tamil Nadu, there is 69 per cent reservation for OBCs, SC and ST and within this, OBC reservations are about 50 per cent. The petitions said 50 per cent of OBC candidates must get admissions in the medical colleges out of seats surrendered under the all India Quota, except for central government institutions.

But the Supreme Court questioned how a petition under Article 32 could be maintainable when there is no fundamental right to have reservation benefits. It said that “Article 32 is available only for violation of fundamental rights, but right to reservation is not a fundamental right.”

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao was categorical that nobody can claim right to reservation as a fundamental right, and hence not giving the quota benefits cannot be construed as a violation of any constitutional right.