New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the minimum eligibility percentage for admission in central universities for OBC category should be at most 10 per cent less than that of general category students.
A bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran said that the eligibility criteria for OBC category students should not be decided on the basis of admission given to the last candidate in general category.The bench, however, clarified that there would be no disturbances in the admissions which have already been done by the universities for this academic session.
The court’s clarification came because of a petition filed by P V Indersan, a former professor of IIT Madras, seeking its direction in the light of discrepancies in the implementation of the OBC quota in different educational institutions.
Earlier, Indersan had approached the apex court challenging a Delhi High Court judgment which said the cut-off marks for OBC candidates should be 10 per cent less than the minimum eligible marks for general category candidates.
He pointed out that there are discrepancies in implementing OBC quota in central universities. He had submitted that Delhi University is following a different yardstick by which the gap in cut-off for OBC students and general category students should not be more than 10 per cent where as in JNU, the practice of 10 per cent relaxation in minimum eligibility criteria is being followed.
The apex court clarified that the judgement of the Constitution bench of Supreme Court upholding the Constitutional validity of government notification of 2006 providing 27.5 per cent reservation to OBC candidates in admission to central universities did not provide that the OBC candidates shall be entitled to a concession of 10 per cent marks against the minimum eligibility decided for general category.(Agencies)
