Emphasising that "the very concept of reservation implies mediocrity", the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against reservation in appointment of faculty in specialty and super-specialty courses in engineering and medical colleges, including those at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

A five-judge Constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir endorsed the views expressed in 1992 by a nine-judge Constitutional bench in the Indra Sawhney case, popularly known as the Mandal case, and said there had to be certain cases where merit alone would count.

The order would mean that specialty and super-specialty branches, such as cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery and others, will not be open for recruitment through reservation for SC/ST and OBC category candidates and all such appointments made till date will have to be repudiated.

"There are certain services and positions where, either on account of the nature of duties attached to them or the level at which they come, merit alone counts. In such situations, it may not be advisable to provide for reservations. For example, technical posts in research and development organisations/departments/ institutions, in specialties and super-specialties in medicine, engineering and other such courses in physical sciences and mathematics, in defence services and in establishments connected therewith," an excerpt from the Mandal judgment read.

It was argued on behalf of AIIMS and the Centre  who were in favour of reservation in the premier medical institute  that the excerpts was merely an observation in the judgment and, hence, was not binding as a directive of the court. But the bench refused to treat it only as an observation.

"We cannot take a different view, even though it has been suggested that such an observation was not binding... We cannot ascribe to such a view since the very concept of reservation implies mediocrity and we will have to take note of the caution indicated in Indra Sawhney's case," the bench said. The bench also comprised Justices S S Nijjar, Ranjan Gogoi, M Y Eqbal and Vikramajit Sen.

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