A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao was categorical that nobody can claim right to reservation as a fundamental right, and hence not giving the quota benefits cannot be construed as a violation of any constitutional right.

“Right to reservation is not a fundamental right. That’s the law today,” remarked Justice Rao, as the bench took up petitions claiming violation of fundamental rights by not keeping seats reserved in the medical colleges in Tamil Nadu for its OBC students.

The petitions, filed by CPI, DMK and some of its leaders asking for 50 per cent OBC reservation in seats, surrendered by Tamil Nadu in the All India Quota for under graduate, post graduate medical and dental courses in 2020-21.

They said that in Tamil Nadu, there is 69 per cent reservation for OBCs, SC and ST and within this, OBC reservations are about 50 per cent.

The petitions said 50 per cent of OBC candidates must get admissions in the medical colleges out of seats surrendered under the all India Quota, except for central government institutions.

“Denial of admissions to OBC candidates is a violation of their fundamental right,” said the pleas, asking for a stay on the counselling under NEET till the reservation is given.

But the Supreme Court on Thursday remained unimpressed with such submissions, and questioned how a petition under Article 32 could be maintainable when there is no fundamental right to have reservation benefits.

“Whose fundamental rights are being violated? Article 32 is available only for violation of fundamental rights. We assume you are all interested in fundamental rights of the citizens of Tamil Nadu. But right to reservation is not a fundamental right,” observed the bench.

The court said it appreciates different political parties in Tamil Nadu coming together for a cause but the top court cannot entertain a plea.

When told that the premise of the cases are violation of the law on reservation by the Tamil Nadu government, the bench said that the petitioners should move the Madras High Court.

The bench allowed them to withdraw the petitions and move the High Court for any relief.

By a ruling in February, the apex court had held there is no fundamental right to claim reservation in public jobs and no court can order a state government to provide for reservation to SC/STs, the Supreme Court has ruled.

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Taking to Twitter, the former UP chief minister said: “By poaching BSP MLAs, the Congress has proved it is an unreliable party. This is a breach of trust even when the BSP was lending its unconditional support to the Congress government in Rajasthan.”

She added: “Instead of fighting with its arch rivals, the Congress always damages the parties that have helped and supported it. Hence, Congress is against Dalits, STs and OBCs and has been non-serious towards the rights of backwards.”

The BSP chief also accused the grand old party of being against the principles of Babasaheb Ambedkar, “which is why he had to resign from the post of the country’s first law minister”.

“The Congress never let Baba Saheb go to Lok Sabha and neither was he awarded the Bharat Ratna. This is very shameful and sad,” she said.

On Monday night, all six BSP MLAs wrote to state assembly Speaker CP Joshi to merge the legislative party with the Congress. MLAs Rajendra Singh Gudha, Jogendra Singh Awana, Wajib Ali, Lakhan Singh Meena, Sandeep Yadav and Deepchand said they were merging their legislative party with the Congress. “All the six BSP MLAs were in constant touch with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and today they have come into the fold of the Congress,” a Congress leader said.

“We took a decision in order to fight against communal forces and to work for the development of the state and stability of the government. Ashok ji is the best Chief Minister and no one can be better than him for Rajasthan. I was impressed with his style of working and polity,” news agency ANI quoted Udaipurwati lawmaker Rajendra Gudd.

Saying that it was difficult for them to support Congress from outside, Nadbai MLA Jogendra Singh Awana said, “We have given our resignations letter and also met CP Joshi ji and Ashok ji today. There were several challenges in front of us. On one hand, we were supporting Congress for the development of the state and on the other, we were fighting against them in elections. We all gave a thought to it. We took a decision in favour of the state.”

The Rajasthan Assembly has 200 seats. The Congress has 100 MLAs and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has one MLA, giving it the majority to run the government. The Congress has also the outside support of 12 out of total 13 independent MLAs. Two seats are vacant.

In 2009, during Gehlot’s earlier tenure, all the six BSP MLAs had also defected to Congress. That time, the government was five short of a clear majority.

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