Calcutta HC holds reservation on religious grounds unconstitutional 2 July 2010 Press Trust of India
KOLKATA, 2 JULY: Calcutta High Court today declared as unconstitutional reservation on religious grounds while allotting flats built by a government agency. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Mr JN Patel and Mr Justice B Bhattacharjee held that there was no provision for reservation on religious grounds in the Constitution on hearing a PIL.
On 10 March, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), a West Bengal government agency, had floated an advertisement for sale of nearly 300 flats at Baishnabghata on the southern outskirts of the city. The brochure said there would be 26 per cent reservation in allotment of the flats for religious minorities such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, etc. Challenging this, the petitioners' counsel, Mr Kaushik Chanda, submitted that the Constitution had no provision for reservation on religious grounds and that the secular nature of the government would be affected if such reservations were made.
KMDA counsel Mr Soumitra Basu submitted that the government agency would be guided by the High Court and abide by its decision. Hearing both parties, the Division Bench passed the order declaring such allotments illegal and asked KMDA to issue fresh advertisements for selling the flats. |
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