File Review Plea or Amend the Constitution, Congress Tells Govt on SC’s Reservation in Jobs Order

New Delhi: Bengaluru: Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday demanded that the union government either file a review petition in the Supreme Court or amend the Constitution to make reservation a fundamental right in the wake of the recent apex court order.

"At least now the Government of India should wake up. They can either take up this matter and amend the Constitution related to Article 16(4)(b) or (c) after consulting the law department or file a review petition asking that a Constitution Bench should hear the case," Kharge said at a press conference at the Congress office here.

Kharge said his party would raise the matter inside and outside Parliament.

The Supreme Court had said that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and there is no fundamental right to claim quota in promotions.

The apex court said this while dealing with pleas on the Uttarakhand government's September 5, 2012 decision to fill up all posts in public services in the state without providing reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress leader claimed that a constitutional matter should not have been heard by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, but the full Constitution Bench. "It is a constitutional matter and only two people have given a judgment, which will have an impact from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Calcutta to Ahmedabad," the former union minister said.

He stressed that such matters, which would affect Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and the economically weaker sections, who are entitled for 10 per cent reservation, should be represented properly.

The judgment, he said, will have repercussions not just in Uttarakhand, but also in Uttar Pradesh and several other states. The Congress leader accused the BJP of trying to 'abolish' the Constitution and having reservation on its agenda.

"I know their (BJPs) agenda. They want to finish the Constitution, finish reservation in promotions, so they are going step by step. But they cannot do it immediately because people are awakened now," Kharge said.