Parliament asks pvt. colleges to reserve seats

NEW DELHI: The parliament yesterday passed a controversial constitutional amendment that will force private colleges to reserve places for students from low-caste or poor backgrounds.

The amendment went through the appointed upper house a day after the lower house approved it.

The move set the stage for a clash with the Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this year that the state could not order private colleges to reserve places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Do you think Americans are Workaholics?

	Yes
	No

   View result

But the government refused to accept the finding and said it would amend the constitution.

"The proposed law is not meant to question the Supreme Court but to protect the rights of students," who are backward, Information Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said earlier in December, as he expressed the government's intention to defy the Supreme Court.

"The parliament is supreme to legislate," he said.

The minister explained that the decision to go ahead with the amendment stemmed from universal demand.
The amendment was passed over demands by the opposition BJP that institutions run by minority groups, as well as socially backward classes, castes and tribes, be included in the measure.