INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - DECEMBER 16^th - DECEMBER 31^st - 2007

RESERVATION FOR SIKH STUDENTS IN SGPC RUN COLLEGES QUASHED

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed the Punjab government notifications of April 13, 2001 and April 1, 2006 whereby the educational institutions run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Punjab had been allowed to have 50 percent reservation for Sikh students being a minority.

The division bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Gl and Ajai Lamba which had reserved the verdict in this case sometime back, pronounced it today while allowing the writ petition filed by Sahil Mittal of Barnala.

The bench observed that the Punjab government has not applied the relevant parameters for declaring a group of individuals to be a minority.

"There is nothing for the Punjab government to show that it had any material or grievances that as a group the Sikhs apprehended deprivation of their religious, cultural and educational rights in the state of Punjab from any other community", the bench observed.

The petitioner had applied this year for admission in Amritsar-based Sri Guru Ram Dass Institute of Medical Education and Research and also in Sri Guru Ram Dass College of Dental Education and Research but did not secure it. He had challenged the 50 percent reservation for Sikh students being minority as notified by the state government.

The Supreme Court in 2002 had ruled that while determining the status of minority for reservation in educational institutions, the population of the minority group in that particular state, would be the basis and not the minority status granted in the country through the Constitution. This was quoted in support of plea to quash reservation of fifty percent seats to Sikh students only in SGPC-run educational institutions in Punjab.