No quota in super-specialty posts: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN | Jul 19, 2013, 05.13 AM IST


NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked caste-based reservations in appointments to faculty posts in premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) saying constitution benches of the court had repeatedly and concurrently warned against reservation at super-specialty level. 

"There were certain services and posts where either on account of the nature of duties attached to them or the level in the hierarchy at which they stood, merit alone counts. In such, situations, it cannot be advised to provide for reservations" a five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S S Nijjar, Ranajan Gogoi, M Y Eqbal and Vikramjit Sen said quoting from the judgment a nine-judge bench delivered in Indira Sawhney case. 

The court quoting from Indira Sawhney verdict, which had upheld the 27% reservation for OBCs in Central services, said: "In certain services in respect of certain posts, application of rule of reservation may not be advisable in regard to various technical posts including posts in super specialty in medicine, engineering and other scientific and technical posts." 

The Faculty Association of AIIMS and Resident Doctors Association, which had challenged the reservation scheme being applied to appointments in premier institutes faculty positions, had argued that that all these posts required qualification in a super-specialty course. 

AIIMS, however, cited Eklavya tale of Mahabharat and supported continuance of reservation for appointments in faculty positions in AIIMS saying without quota the Eklavyas would always lose to Arjun who had the backing of the traditional system. The Centre, too, supported the stand of AIIMS. 

What prevailed upon the bench headed by the Justice Kabir was the Indra Sawhney case, which while stressing the relevance and significance of merit at the stage of initial recruitment, had cautioned that reservation too implied selection of less meritorious person. 

While giving due weight to AIIMS and government argument that SC, ST and OBCs needed social uplift through reservation, the bench said it could not overlook the plausible view that "the very concept of reservation implies mediocrity and we will have to take not of the caution indicated in Indra Sawhney's case." 

After reiterating the caution and subscribing to the judicially settled view that there could be no reservation in the super-specialty posts, the bench said: "We impress upon the central and State governments to take appropriate steps in accordance with the views expressed in Indra Sawhney's case and in this case, as also the other decisions referred to above, keeping in mind the provisions of Article 335 of the Constitution." 

Article 335 of the Constitution provided: "The claims of the members of the SCs and STs shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of Union or of a State."

Justice Sathasivam first judge from Tamil Nadu to become CJI

Chief Justice of India-designate P. Sathasivam in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: V. Sudershan

J Venkatesan : New delhi: 29 June 2013

He will be sworn in on July 19 as 40th CJI

President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday appointed Justice P. Sathasivam, seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, the 40th Chief Justice of India.

He succeeds Altamas Kabir, who retires on July 18, and will have a brief tenure of about nine months.

Justice Sathasivam, 64, is the first judge from Tamil Nadu to become the CJI. Justice M. Patanjali Sastri, who served as CJI from November 1951 to January 1954, represented the undivided Madras Presidency.

Justice Sathasivam never served as Chief Justice of a High Court as he was elevated directly to the Supreme Court on August 21, 2007, when he was serving as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Hailing from Kadappanallur village, Bhavani taluk in Erode district of Tamil Nadu, Justice Sathasivam belonged to an agricultural family. He was the first graduate in his family and the first law graduate in his village. He was appointed a permanent judge of the Madras High Court on January 8, 1996. As a High Court judge, though he handled all types of cases, he disposed of more cases in service, labour and accident claim matters. On April 20, 2007, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

He will be sworn in as CJI on July 19, 2013. He is due to retire on April 26, 2014.

As a Supreme Court judge, Justice Sathasivam has delivered some landmark judgments on matters of national importance which include Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. vs. Reliance Industries Limited wherein he emphasised the use of natural resources through public sector undertakings. He observed that “in a national democracy like ours, the national assets belong to the people” and “the government owns such assets for the purposes of developing them in the interests of the people.”

In Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh vs. Union of India case, he dealt with the triple murder case of Australian Christian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons. This judgment concluded with the hope that Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of religion playing a positive role in bringing India’s numerous religions and communities into an integrated prosperous nation be realised by way of equal respect for all religions.

In another valiant pronouncement in Md. Khalil Chisti vs. State of Rajasthan, he set aside the Pakistani national’s conviction under Section 302 IPC and allowed him to go back to his native country.

In the Mayawati vs. Union of India case, he held that the Central Bureau of Investigation exceeded its jurisdiction in lodging FIR of disproportionate assets against Mayawati in the Taj Corridor matter and the same was quashed as being illegal.

In a number of judgments, he cautioned the courts against awarding lesser sentence in crimes against women and children and showing undue sympathy towards the accused by altering the sentence to the extent of period already undergone.

In the Mumbai blasts case, Justice Sathasivam convicted Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt to five years’ imprisonment under the Arms Act and he was asked to serve out the remaining sentence.

As executive chairman, National Legal Services Authority, he visited several States and created awareness on people’s rights and entitlement. He inaugurated several legal literacy camps in rural areas, schools and colleges.

Keywords: P. Sathasivam, Chief Justice of India appointment, Altamas Kabir