TMI Blog2022 (1) TMI 1373X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tee by the Department of Higher Education and the 234th Report tabled by the Standing Committee in the Parliament that some of the CEIs, in particular those situated in North Eastern States having a predominant tribal population, expressed their inability to reduce the extent of reservation of seats for SCs and STs for ensuring reservation of 27% of the seats for the OBC category, as stipulated in the Reservation Act. It can also be seen that the provisions of the Reservation Act as they stood, exempted CEIs situated in tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, from making any reservation for SCs and STs, which as a matter of fact, was not the object behind introducing the enactment. It has been held in the impugned judgment that the Respondent No. 1 - University was correct in calculating the extent of reservation of seats in making admissions to different courses, viz., 31% for ST candidates, 2% for SC candidates and 17% for OBC candidates which is in line with the mandate of the Amendment Act. Once the two provisos were inserted in Section 3 of the Parent Act by virtue of the Amendment Act, the general norms of reservation as laid down in Clauses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th the second proviso to Section 3 of the Reservation Act inserted by virtue of the Amendment Act - the present appeal fails and the impugned judgment is upheld - Appeal dismissed. - Civil Appeal No. 163 of 2022 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 34681 of 2017) - - - Dated:- 5-1-2022 - L. NAGESWARA RAO AND HIMA KOHLI, JJ. For the Petitioner : Ms. Punam Kumari, AOR, Mr. Sapam Biswajit Meitei, Adv. For the Respondent : Mr. Sanjay Kumar Dubey, AOR, Ms. Shuchi Singh, Adv., Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv., Mr. Vivek Kumar Dubey, Adv., Mr. Rakesh Kumar Tewari, Adv., Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR, Mr. M.B.R.S. Raju, Adv., Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR, Mr. Mohammed Shahrukh, Adv., Mr. Prateek Yadav, Adv., Ms. Aakriti Priya, Adv., Ms. Lakshmi Rao, Adv., Mr. Ashutosh Dubey, AOR, Mr. H.D. Dubey, Adv., Ms. Rajshi Dubey, Adv., Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv., Mr. Amit P. Shahi, Adv., Mr. Arun Nagar, Adv., Mr. Rajesh Mahale, AOR JUDGMENT Hima Kohli, J. Leave granted. 1. The Appellants are aggrieved by the judgment dated 21st August, 2017 passed by the High Court of Manipur at Imphal in Writ Petition (C) No. 753 of 2014 whereunder, amongst others, it has been held that af ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion of students to a Central Educational Institution; xxx xxx xxx 4. From the academic year 2009-10 onwards, Respondent No. 1 - University started following the reservation norms as prescribed in the Reservation Act. On 20th June, 2012, the aforesaid Statute was amended by virtue of the Amendment Act and as a result of the said amendment, Clauses (ia) and (ib) were inserted in Section 2, i.e. the definition Clause and two provisos were inserted in Section 3. Further, Clause (a) of Section 4 was omitted and Sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 5 were amended. The aforesaid Amendment Act, 2012 that forms the bedrock of the grievance raised in the present appeal, is extracted below for ready reference: THE CENTRAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (RESERVATION IN ADMISSION) AMENDMENT ACT, 2012 No. 31 OF 2012 [19th June, 2012] PREAMBLE An Act to amend the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 Be it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows: SECTION-1. Short title.- This Act may be called the Central Educational institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Act, 2012. SECTION-2. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ut the extent of the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall not be reduced in respect of Central Educational Institutions in the specified north-eastern region. . SECTION-4. Amendment of Section 4.- In Section 4 of the principal Act, Clause (a) shall be omitted. SECTION-5. Amendment of Section 5.- In Section 5 of the principal Act,-(a) in Sub-section (1), for the words number of such seats available , the words number of such seats available or actually filled, wherever be less, shall be substituted; (b) in Sub-section (2), for the words three years , the words six years shall be substituted. [emphasis supplied] 5. Relying on the provision of reservation made Under Section 3 of the Reservation Act, Respondent No. 1 - University promulgated Ordinance 5.2, that prescribes Rules relating to admission to the University and Ordinance 5.4 deals with reservation of seats and other special provisions for admission to the University, both in the year 2014. Rule 18 of Ordinance 5.2 reads as below: 18. 15% of the seats in the academic programmes offered by the University shall be reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Caste, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the SC, ST and OBC categories in the University, would be 2%, 31% and 17% respectively for admission to various courses. However, the Court declined to go into the actual calculation of the seats notified as reserved by the Respondent No. 1 - University and confined itself to the principles to be adopted for determination of percentage of reservation of seats on which basis, calculation of the seats had to be made. 9. Dissatisfied by the aforesaid judgment dated 01st September, 2015, the Appellants filed Writ Appeal No. 40 of 2015 before the High Court of Manipur at Imphal. As no Division Bench was available due to paucity of Judges in the said Court, recourse was taken to filing a Transfer Petition before this Court, which was allowed and the captioned writ appeal was transferred to the High Court of Meghalaya at Shillong for adjudication by a Division Bench and was re-numbered as Writ Appeal No. 83 of 2016. 10. Vide judgment dated 20th April, 2017, the Division Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya remanded the matter back to the learned Single Judge of the Manipur High Court for consideration afresh and called upon the said Court to examine and decide the percentage of rese ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct, nor the Hon'ble Division Bench has stated that irrespective of the formula for ascertaining the percentage of reservation for the OBCs as provided under the Second Proviso to Section 3 of the Act after the amendment in 2012, the Institute has to apply Clauses (i) and (ii) of Section 3 of the Act to fix the percentage of reservation for the SCs and STs. (iv) Second Proviso was specifically inserted for the Central Educational Institutions located in the specified North Eastern Region for protecting the interest of STs, particularly as evident from the Clause (b) of the Second Proviso. It protects the interest of the STs wherever, their percentage of reservation is more than what is prescribed under Clause (ii) of Section 3 of the Act. The Act specifically provides that even if the extent of reservation of seats of the STs SCs exceed 50% of the annual permitted strength on the date immediately preceding the date of commencement of the Act, there shall not be reservation for the OBCs under Clause (3) but, the extent of reservation of seats for STs SCs shall not be reduced. (v) The Institute has to determine the percentages of reservation for admission for the SCs, ST ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from the vice of arbitrariness. (x) The validity of these Ordinances relating to other matters, other than fixation of percentage of reservation for admission of students, not being an issue in this petition, is left open to be decided in appropriate case. (xi) Before the implementation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, Manipur University was following the reservation norm of 2% for the Scheduled Castes, 31 % for the Scheduled Tribes and 17% for the Other Backward Classes. (xii) After the implementation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, Manipur University started following the reservation norm as per Clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) of Section 3 of the Act to the extent of 15% for the Scheduled Castes, 7.5% for the Scheduled Tribes, and 27% for the Other Backward Classes from the academic year 2009-2010. (xiii) After the amendment of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 in 2012 introduced by the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Act, 2012, Manipur University has to follow the reservation norm of 2% for the Scheduled ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was further sought to be pointed out on behalf of the Appellants that amendment to Section 3 of the Reservation Act was necessitated only because Section 4(a) of the Reservation Act, stood omitted by the Amendment Act. Pertinently, Section 4(a) of the Reservation Act as it stood prior to the amendment, stated that the provision of Section 3 of the Act would not apply to a CEI established in tribal areas, referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. It was submitted that the intention of the Legislature in amending the Reservation Act by introducing the Amendment Act was not to make the amendments applicable to CEIs situated in non-tribal States like the State of Manipur and the expression on the date immediately preceding the date of commencement of the Reservation Act , as used in the second proviso to Section 3 of the Act, qualifies the expression annual permitted strength as used in Section 3 and defined in Section 2(b) of the Parent Act and not the extent of reservation. 14. To sum up, it is the contention of learned Counsel for the Appellants that the Amendment Act was legislated to ensure that reservation for SC and ST candidates as prescribed in Section 3 of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... had the status of a 'State University' only till the year 2005 and at that point in time, it was following the then prevalent Rules of reservation in the State of Manipur viz. 2% for SC candidates and 31% for ST candidates for admission in courses offered by the University. However, the said position changed when the Respondent No. 1 - University was granted the status of a 'Central University' in the year 2005 and was thereafter governed under the Reservation Act which came into force w.e.f. 03rd January, 2007. On being designated as a Central University, Respondent No. 1 - University discontinued the reservation norms of the State Government and started following the reservation norms provided Under Section 3 of the Reservation Act i.e., 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs. Learned Counsel clarified that the Respondent No. 1 - University was not covered under the exemption Clause provided Under Section 4(a) of the Parent Act that was subsequently repealed since the University is not an institution established in tribal areas , referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. Only after enactment of the Amendment Act did the Respondent No. 1 - Univers ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... however, subscribed to the arguments advanced by learned Counsel for the Appellants and submitted that reduction of the number of seats reserved for SC candidates in the Respondent No. 1 - University runs contrary to the mandate of the Reservation Act. It is his submission that the Amendment Act provides for reduction of reservation to the OBC category candidates to the extent that there need not be any reservation at all for the said category only to ensure that there is no reduction in the overall seats reserved for the SC and ST candidates. Referring to the provisos incorporated in Section 3 of the Parent Act by virtue of the amendments, learned Counsel submitted that the requirement that the extent of reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall not be reduced in respect of Central Education Institutions in specified North Eastern Regions applies not only to the situation contemplated in Clause (a) to the second proviso appended to Section 3 of the Parent Act, but also to Clause (b) to the second proviso. In other words, reservation made for SC and ST candidates should not be reduced to the extent below what was prevailing before the Reservation Act, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ined or aided by the Central Government. It also provides for mandatory increase of seats in such institutions over a maximum period of three years from the academic session commencing on and from the calendar year, 2007. Section 4 of the aforesaid Act further provides that the provisions of the Act are not applicable to certain Central Educational Institutions including those established in the tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. 2. It is noted that some of the Central Educational Institutions particularly those situated in the North-Eastern States including Sikkim (but excluding the non-tribal areas of Assam) inhabited significantly, and in some cases predominantly by tribal population and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, which has been reserving fifty per cent seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in keeping with the objects specified in the Act establishing that University, have been showing their inability to reduce the extent of reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes prevailing therein, in order to give way for reservation of twenty-seven per cent of seats for the Other Backwar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rnment in the matter of admissions of SCs, STs and OBCs to that CEI. (ii) In a CEI with no State seats, if the seats reserved for the SCs exceed 15 per cent or the seats reserved for the STs exceed 7.5 per cent or the seats reserved for the SCs and the STs taken together in a CEI exceed 22.5 per cent but fall short of 50 per cent of the annual permitted strength, the percentage of seats reserved for the OBCs shall be restricted to such shortfall. (iii) In a CEI with no State Seats, if the seats reserved for SCs or the STS or both taken together in a CEI exceed 50 per cent of the annual permitted strength, that CEI shall be exempt from making any reservation for the OBCs. Further, if such a CEI is situated in the north-eastern States, including Sikkim but excluding the non-tribal areas of Assam, the percentage of seats reserved for the SCs or the STs shall not be reduced from the level obtaining on the date immediately preceding the date of the commencement of the Act; while in case of a CEI situated in other areas the percentage of seats reserved for the SCs and STs in that CEI shall stand reduced to 50 per cent. 3.5 While the Committee is convinced with the proposed amend ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rom the said Report, one could determine the percentage of reservation for SC and ST candidates for purposes of applying the second proviso inserted in Section 3 of the Parent Act post-amendment, but the appellate court was not persuaded by the said logic. 25. It is no longer res integra that Reports and recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committees/Commissions that precede enactment of a Statute can be used as external aids to interpret the meaning of ambiguous words in a statutory provision wherever considered necessary. It can also be taken note of as to the existence of a historical fact. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that such Reports are not decisive and a Court is free to arrive at a different conclusion based on its own findings and other evidence produced by the parties. [Refer State of Mysore v. R.V. Bidap (1974) 3 SCC 337, R.S. Nayak v. A.R. Antulay (1984) 2 SCC 183 and Kalpana Mehta and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors. (2018) 7 SCC 1]. For our purpose, we do not intend to take notice of the said Report with an idea of determining the extent of reservation for SC and ST candidates in the light of the amendment by way of insertion to Section 3 of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion 3 only to make sure that the percentage of reservation provided for in Section 3(i) and (ii) of the Parent Act would remain untouched. Accepting such a submission would tantamount to negating the very aim and object of the Amendment Act, which was enacted only to resolve the difficulties that were being faced by the CEIs in implementing the Reservation Act when it came to the North Eastern States, including the State of Manipur. The two provisos inserted in Section 3 of the Parent Act are nothing but a recognition of the demography of the North Eastern States covered under the umbrella of Specified north eastern region which have a substantial tribal population. 28. It is in the light of the aforesaid factors that it has been held in the impugned judgment that the Respondent No. 1 - University was correct in calculating the extent of reservation of seats in making admissions to different courses, viz., 31% for ST candidates, 2% for SC candidates and 17% for OBC candidates which is in line with the mandate of the Amendment Act. The aforesaid understanding of the Respondent No. 1 - University is also reflected from the affidavit filed by it in opposition to the writ petitio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... alent when the Reservation Act had come into force viz. 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBC candidates. In our opinion, any such interpretation would strike at the root of the Amendment Act which was legislated with the sole object of overcoming the ambiguities that had come to the fore on working out the warp and woof of the Reservation Act, namely, the inability to meet the aspirations of a large number of ST candidates looking for opportunities to gain entry in CEIs located in the areas subsequently defined as the Specified north eastern region in the Amendment Act. 30. Once the two provisos were inserted in Section 3 of the Parent Act by virtue of the Amendment Act, the general norms of reservation as laid down in Clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) of Section 3 of the Parent Act had to be restricted in terms of the said provisos. While the first proviso deals with State seats , if any, in a CEI situated in tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, the second proviso addresses a situation where there are no State seats in a CEI and the seats reserved for the SC/ST candidates exceeds the percentage specified under Clauses (i) and (ii) of Section 3 ( ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... efore the commencement of the Reservation Act by reserving seats in respect of ST, SC and OBC candidates, pegged at 31%, 2% and 17% respectively which was in consonance with the Manipur State Reservation Policy. 32. The submission made by learned Counsel for the Appellants that the Respondent No. 1 - University was under a mandate to follow the norms provided under Clauses (i) and (ii) of Section 3 of the Parent Act while giving a complete go by to the provisos inserted in the said provision by virtue of the Amendment Act which, as per the learned Counsel, could be applied only to determine the percentage of seats required to be reserved for OBC candidates, is devoid of merits and turned down. To our mind, the learned Single Judge is perfectly right in making the observation that the formulae for fixing the percentage of reservation for the SC and ST candidates and for determining the percentage of seats to be reserved for OBC candidates under the second proviso of Section 3, ought to be gathered from the same source and any other interpretation would lead to uncertainty. 33. To put it differently, the reference point of the period for determining the reservation quota for OB ..... 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