NLS Reservations Case: Issues for Discussion

Find below, issues for discussion for tomorrow's session, as identified by this week's group:

1. Discussing the history and purpose for the policy of reservation in India and analysing whether the judgment fulfils the underlying rationale to be achieved.
2. Can NLS, being a "national institute" but not one of "national importance" extended its reservation to SCs and STs at the all India level?
3. What is the rationale behind the Karnataka High Court's decision against National Law School?
4. What is the nature of Article 341 and the Presidential Order of 1950 and what are their implications for reservation made by a state for SCs at the national level?
5. What is ‘real equality’?
6. What kind of interpretation has the court given the phrases ‘with relation to the state’ and ‘for the purpose of the Constitution’ in Art 341(1)?
7. Has the court in the given case followed precedent with regards to the above two issues?
8. Questioning the constitutionality of the reservation policy formed after the judgement. Is it in accordance to Art 14 and Art 19(1)(e) of the Constitution?
9. The effect of judgement on admissions to NLSIU next year.
10. Is our reservation policy faulty? Should we rather adopt a method like that in the US or South Africa? Or is their policy not applicable under our circumstances?

Session 8: The NLS Reservations Case

This week we will be discussing the NLS Reservations case (Lolaksha v. Convener, CLAT, WP No. 18534/2009. The judgment can be found at the url below:

http://164.100.80.145:8080/dspace/bitstream/123456789/200616/1/WP18534-09-10-09-2009.pdf