Justice P.B. Sawant[1]
509. In this connection, it is worth serious consideration whether reservations in the form of preference instead of exclusive quota should not be resorted to in the teaching profession in the interests of the backward classes themselves. Education is the source of advancement of the individual in all walks of life. The teaching profession, therefore, holds a key position in societal life. It is the quality of education received that determines and shapes the equipment and the competitive capacity of the individual, and lays the foundation for his career in life. It is, therefore, in the interests of all sections of the society – socially backward and forward-and of the nation as a whole, that they aim at securing and ensuring the best of education. The student whether he belongs to the backward or forward class is also entitled to expect that he receives the best possible education that can be made available to him and correspondingly it is the duty and the obligation of the management of every educational institution to make sincere and diligent efforts to secure the services of the best available teaching talent. In the appointments of teachers, therefore, there should be no compromise on any ground. For as against the few who may get appointments as teachers from the reserved quota, there will be over the years thousands of students belonging to the backward classes receiving education whose competitive capacity needs to be brought to the level of the forward classes. What is more, incompetent teaching would also affect the quality of education received by the students from the other sections of the society. However, whereas those coming from the advanced sections of the society can make up their loss in the quality of education received, by education at home or outside through private tuitions and tutorial classes, those coming from the backward classes would have no means for making up the loss. The teachers themselves must further command respect which they will do more when they do not come through any reserved quota. The indiscipline in the educational campus is not a little due to the incompetence of the teachers from whatever section they may come, forward or backward . It is, therefore, necessary that there should be no exclusive quota kept in the teaching occupation for any section at all. However, if the candidates belonging to both backward and forward classes are equal in merit, preference should be given to those belonging to the backward classes. For one thing, they must also have a “look into” the teaching profession as in other professions. Secondly, in this vital profession also, the talent, the social experience and the new approach and outlook of the members of the backward classes is very much necessary. That will enrich the profession and the national life. Thirdly, it will also help to meet the complaints of the alleged step-motherly treatment received by the students from the backward classes and of the lack of encouragement to them even when they are more meritorious. Hence in the teaching profession, it is preference rather than reservation, which should be resorted to under Article 16(4) of the Constitution. A precaution, however, has to be taken to see that the selection body has a representation from the backward classes.
510. It must, however, be added that in judging the merits of the individuals for the profession of teaching as for any other profession, it is not the traditional test of marks obtained in examinations, but a scientific test based, among other things, on the aptitude in teaching, the capacity to express and convey thoughts, the scholarship, the character of the person, his interest in teaching, his potentiality as a teacher judged on the considerations indicated generally at the outset, should be adopted.
511. What is stated that regard to the teaching profession above is only by way of an illustration as to how the policy of reservation if it is to subserve its larger purpose can be modulated and applied rationally to different fields instead of clamping it mechanically in all the fields or withholding it from some areas altogether. It is not meant to lay down any proposition of law in that behalf.
[1] This article is an excerpt from the judgment of Indira Sawhney v Union of India 1993 (1) SCT 448