Supreme Court refuses to entertain a petition seeking removal of reservation system

An LLM student filed the petition in the Supreme Court seeking the removal of the reservation system, the bench said the PIL is an abuse of process.

The apex court has refused to entertain a plea filed by an LLM student seeking the removal of the reservation system. The bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said the PIL is an abuse of process.

"'Remove system of reservation' - this is a plea. You are saying it is against equality and it is leading to caste system. LLM student files a plea for publicity. We will impose a lakh cost if you do not withdraw. Petition is an abuse of the process of the law," said the bench, as reported by Bar and Bench.

After the SC bench expressed displeasure over the plea, the petitioner withdrew it.

As per the report, recently a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had batted for the removal of the reservation system. In this case, though, the constitutional validity of the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act was upheld which provided for reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), but Justice Dinesh Maheshwari had opined that provisions in Articles 15 and 16 enabling reservation for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) do not form part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

Also, Justice JB Pardiwala said that reservations should not continue for an indefinite time.

"it is time to revisit the reservation/ affirmative action system followed in India," said Justice Bela M Trivedi in her concurring judgment in that case.

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