New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday
slammed Indian Railway`s discriminatory policy vis-a-vis
allotment of high-income yielding catering contracts at the
country`s 8,000-odd railway stations saying you cannot keep
out a large section of people in the name of globalization.
"Why is there no reservation for SC, STs when there is
such benefits for low-income yielding contracts? They could
have inter-set competitions among the SCs even in the high-
income contracts," a bench of Justices B N Agrawal, G S
Singhvi and Mukundakam Sharma said.
The apex court wondered whether such discriminatory
policy was being adopted as the policy makers lacked
confidence in the capabilities of the reserved communities.
"In the name of globalisation, you can`t keep such a
large section (reserved) out. They (SCs,STs) are always at the
receiving end," the bench said.
The apex court said SCs,STs cannot be underestimated
as some of them had in fact achieved resounding success in
various competitive exams for civil services and professional
courses by coming from merit category rather than from the
reserved quota.
The railways has been reserving certain percentage of
the contracts for SC,STs, minorities, physically challenged,
war widows only for low-income yielding contracts whereas no
such benefit is extended to high-income yielding contracts.
Bureau Report
