Defending the quota law at the Supreme Court the Centre on Wednesday said that the 93rd Constitutional Amendment, which enabled reservation for socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs), was not unconstitutional and will not violate the basic structure of the Constitution. The Centre, recently, had contended before the five-member Constitutional bench of the apex court that the law ensuring 27% quota for OBCs in the elite central educational institutions has nothing to do with the vote-bank politics.
??Article 15(5) is not only an enabling provision but also confers legislative competence for making such law,?? a government counsel said before bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan. The bench, at present, is examining the validity of the quota law, passed in Parliament.
??The amendment does not confer unbridled power. Parliament and legislatures are alone the arms of the state to make laws. An amendment of the Constitution can empower them to make particular laws by adding to the empowerment,?? the counsel added.
