The Reservation Conundrum Amidst India’s Identity Crisis

Yugaanter Negi, LLB, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi

ABSTRACT

The reservation policy attracts heated debates from across the country. However, the reservation policy was never the problem, it was a means to an end. It was a first-aid applied to the newly formed ‘Union of States’ that sought to vanquish inequality in the wake of its colonial oppression. But the prolongation of the process of achieving the end for which reservation was a means has corroded its value. The means is now understood as the end and deemed the problem instead. This paper aims to scrutinize the provisions laid down in Article 16 of the Indian Constitution and critically evaluate all qualms that have been posited against the reservation policy over the years.