Summary of the Paper: Situating the Reservation Debate

(Paper Submitted as part of Refresher course in Economics 5 December—26 December, 2006Academic Staff College, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)



It is pointed out that preferential treatment given in public employment and in higher education on the basis of caste is discriminatory in nature and violates the principle of equality. The apex court also aired the same view in the recent judgement on Nagaraj case delivered on 16-10-2006.

The paper argues that such a preferential treatment seldom violates the concept of equality rather it reinforces and under grids the concept of equality. A mere statement of equality in the constitution is meaningless unless it is matched with a “set of resources” that is required to take benefit out of the constitutional guarantee. If any section of the society has any deficiency with respect to that “set of resources” then they cannot take benefit out of the mere conferment of equality. Hence for maintaining equality, such sections of the society must be given some type of preferential treatment to acquire that “set of resources”.

If the said deficiency is in terms of human capital, acquired in the form of education, it could be surmounted by providing the desired level of education to such sections of the society. Wherefore the clamour for reservation in higher education becomes a natural corollary of the efforts taken by the state to ensure 'equality'!

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