Author: Dhananjay Mahapatra
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 10, 2006
Introduction: Underscores importance of quotas,
but calls for open competition
Unmindful of the raging controversy over quotas,
the supreme court has lent its support to open competitions to fill government
jobs.
Basing its views on the intention of the founding
fathers of the Constitution, it said discrimination in any form, be it sex,
caste or religion, ran counter to the country's constitutional scheme.
The framers of the Constitution intended that
no one should be denied opportunity of being considered for public employment
on the grounds of sex, caste, place of birth, residence and religion, a bench
comprising Justices G P Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari said.
"Our constitutional scheme clearly envisages
equality of opportunity in public employment," said Justice Bhandari,
writing the judgment for the bench highlighting the strong sire for "equality
in the true sense" as reflected in the Constitution.
Though the judgment was mainly aimed at stopping
back-door entry into government jobs through orders of courts regularising
ad hoc, daily wage and contractual appointments, it went on to restate that
equal opportunity was the basic feature of the Constitution.
"It would be improper for court, to give
directions for regularising services of persons working either as daily-wagers,
ad hoc employees, probationers, temporary or contractual employees without
following the Procedure laid down under Articles 14, 16 and 309 of the Constitution,"
the bench said.
Through this, the court underscored the importance
of special provisions made for upliftment of the weaker sections of society
through reservations in jobs and educational institutions. But, it did not
forget to mention the importance of open competition.
The court drew support from constitutional
expert H M Seervai's book Constitutional Law of India, which States that the
principle of recruitment by open competition was first applied in India, even
before its colonial rulers.
