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Irreligious people deserve quotas: HC

Ashraf Padanna

TRIVANDRUM: The Kerala High Court (HC) has directed the state government to formulate a policy to include irreligious people in the category of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) for benefits.

Five years back, the Communists-led government established a 10 per cent quota for EWS belonging to the upper castes for jobs and admissions to educational institutions.

Earlier, the benefits were available to backward castes and communities like the SC and ST, Muslims, Ezhavas, Latin Catholics, Anglo-indians and marginalised Hindu groups.

Justice VG Arun observed that a government which claims to be progressive could not deny these benefits merely because they do not belong to any of these communities.

A group of undergraduates who had declared themselves as belonging to the non-religious category for college admission.

“The government has to formulate a policy and guidelines for issuing community certificates to persons like the (non-religious) petitioners,” he said.

Kerala accepted a list, based on the recommendations of the Forward Community Commission which only included people who declared their caste and community.

The petitioners argued that their exclusion was a violation of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of India’s Constitution and sought a directive from the court to the state to correct it.

The judge pointed out that people who make the choice to be non-religious must be appreciated in a secular country like India.

He directed the government to issue certificates to the petitioners in the non-religious category so that they can claim reservations if they fulfil all other requirements.

“In the meanwhile, the petitioners shall be issued with certificates in the non-religious category so as to enable them to seek the 10 per cent reservation available to EWS students,” the interim order said.

The quota had drawn severe criticism, mostly from backward classes, saying it diluted the caste-based reservation that the architects of the Constitution incorporated to ensure social justice.

India

en-ae

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

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