Supreme Court Refuses to revoke Stay on OBC QUOTA

Supreme Court says no to OBC quotas

New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to revoke the stay on quota laws for other backward classes (OBC) students in centrally funded higher educational institutions.

The law had been suspended on March 29.

The Supreme Court decision has come despite the government offering a compromise formula for the same. Besides being embarrassing for the ruling UPA government, the refusal is especially disillusioning for Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh who had been trying to push the stay.

Refusing to lift the freeze, a five-judge Constitution Bench ruled that the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act 2006 cannot be implemented until the main petitions challenging the validity of the Act is decided.

"We are not going to pass any interim order," the Bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, said.

The Bench said it will hear the main petition to examine the Constitutional validity of the Centre Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 soon.