NAOREM RAKHESH SINGH AND ORS. Vs. THE MANIPUR UNIVERSITY AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CLARITY and certainty are the hallmark of law. The path laid by the law should be clear, well -illuminated and broad enough to be traversed by all. Problems arise when such is not the case, and one has to traverse through a maze of narrow lanes and bye lanes of provisions and subjected to contradictory indicators and ambiguity. The present case is one such instance where the extent of reservation for the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes has been clouded with uncertainties. The issue arises out of application of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 regarding reservation of seats for admission in the Manipur University, established under a Central Act, and admittedly a Central Educational Institution within the meaning of Section 2(d)(1) of the Act. Section 3 of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the CEI Act) provides for reservation of seats for admission in the Central Educational Institutions in the following manner : - -

(2.) SECTION 4(a) of the CEI Act as it originally stood further provided that provisions of Section 3 of the Act shall not apply to a Central Educational Institution established in the tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. Accordingly, as per the CEI Act, 2006 as it originally stood, reservation relating to admissions to the Manipur University was governed by the provisions of Section 3 of the Act as mentioned above as Manipur University was not established in the tribal area referred to the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, thus, not covered by the exemption clause under Section 4(a) of the Act. Prior to that, before the enforcement of the said Act, the Manipur University was following the reservation norm of the State Government, i.e. 2% for the Scheduled Castes and 31% for the Scheduled Tribes. The said State norm was discontinued after the enforcement of the CEI Act, 2006 in view of the provisions of Section 3 as mentioned above. In other words, before the implementation of the CEI Act, 2006, the State norms was adopted for reservation of seats but after implementation of the said Act, the norm provided under Section 3 (viz. 15% for the SCs, 7.5% for the STs and 27% for the OBCs) came to be applied in the Manipur University for admission of studies in various academic courses which is different from the State norm.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY , the percentage of seats reserved for admission for the SC candidates which was earlier fixed at 15% in terms of Section 3(i) of the CEI Act, 2006 has now been reduced to 2% and the percentage of reservation for the STs which was earlier fixed at 7.5% was increased to 31% after the Manipur University refixed the percentages in terms of the amendments to the Act as mentioned above. The petitioners who belong to SC community thus have felt aggrieved that the percentage of reservation for the SCs has been reduced, because of which, in some subjects there is no reservation at all for the SC students. Accordingly, the present petitioners have challenged the refixation of reservation of seats similar to the said State norm by the Manipur University in this writ petition. The respondents No. 13 to 19 who are also SC students have impleaded themselves in support of the claim of the petitioners. On the other hand, the respondents No. 8 to 12 who all belong to ST communities in the State of Manipur have impleaded themselves to oppose the claim of the writ petitioners contending that the refixation of percentage of reservation for the SCs, STs and OBCs by the Manipur University by following the State norm is in conformity with the amendment made to Section 3 of the Principal Act.