'Reservation has become like train compartments': Justice Surya Kant while hearing Maharashtra local body election case

A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice NK Singh was hearing the case

During a hearing at the Supreme Court, Justice Surya Kant said reservation in the country has become like a train compartment.

"The thing is, in this country, the reservation business has become like a railway. Those who have entered the bogie, they don't want anyone else to enter. That is the whole game. That is precisely the game of the petitioner also"," said Justice Kant as quoted by Livelaw.

He made the comment while hearing the case related to the OBC reservation in the local body elections in Maharashtra.

Local body polls in the state were last held in 2016-2017. The key reason for the delay in holding polls was the legal fight over quota for candidates from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). In 2021, the Supreme Court struck down a Maharashtra government ordinance to implement a 27 per cent quota for OBCs.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner,  said that the state's Banthia Commission gave reservations to the OBCs in the local body elections without ascertaining if they were politically backward.

He argued that political backwardness was distinct from social and educational backwardness and OBCs cannot be automatically presumed to be politically backward, according to Livelaw.

According to NDTVThe train compartment metaphor was at first used used by Justice BR Gavai, who takes over as Chief Justice later this month. "I find that the attitude of the categories in the Presidential List opposing such a sub-classification is that of a person in the general compartment of the train. Firstly, the persons outside the compartment struggled to get into the general compartment. However, once they get inside it, they make every attempt possible to prevent the persons outside such a compartment from entering it," Justice Gavai said while reading out his judgment that said the sub-classification of SC/ST categories is permissible and states can create these sub-classifications.