The Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutional validity of a 2022 resolution passed by the National Law University, Jodhpur (NLUJ), introducing 25 percent domicile-based reservation for students from Rajasthan [Anindita Biswas v. National Law University, Jodhpur & Ors.].
A Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice AS Chandurkar was hearing a plea challenging the Rajasthan High Court’s order holding that such reservation did not violate Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution and that it fell within the policy domain of the State government.
"We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The Special Leave Petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the Supreme Court ordered.
The plea was filed by Anindita Biswas, a 19-year-old NLU aspirant from West Bengal.
The petitioner contended that the introduction of the domicile quota was contrary to the objectives of NLU Jodhpur.
He submitted that the National Law University, Jodhpur Act of 1999 only envisaged reservations for SC and ST students and did not moot reservation on the basis of domicile. She argued that both the State notification and the University’s resolution were ultra vires the statute.
It was submitted that the policy violated Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution by creating an unreasonable classification without empirical basis. The petitioner highlighted that Rajasthan students were already well-represented in NLUs nationwide and could not be considered socially or educationally backward to warrant such a reservation.
Further, the plea argued that the policy undermined the national character of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), which was designed to provide equal opportunity to candidates across India for securing admissions to NLUs.
Reliance was placed on a committee report which found no justification for domicile reservation and recommended alternative measures such as establishing new law universities in Rajasthan instead of altering NLU Jodhpur’s admission policy.
The petitioner also alleged that the State’s intervention compromised the institutional autonomy of NLU Jodhpur, since the Academic Council, the competent authority under the Act, had not concurred with the decision to amend the admission policy.
However, the Court did not entertain these arguments and proceeded to dismiss the challenge against the Rajasthan High Court order.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal and advocates Lzafeer Ahmad BF, Vishwajeet Bhati, Arshiya Ghose and Sachin Dubey appeared for the petitioner.
[Read Order]