Supreme Court nixes 100% army kids? quota

Updated on: Monday, May 16, 2011

The Supreme Court ruled that non-minority educational institutions have no right to admit students of their choice and struck down 100% reservation for children of armed forces personnel in the Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS) in Delhi Cantonment.

A bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar said if the non-minority educational institutions were given such a right it “would be detrimental to the true nature of education as an occupation, damage environment in which our students are taught the lessons of life, and imparted knowledge.”

It allowed petitions filed by the Indian Medical Association and students, who through counsel Dr Aman Hingorani, challenged the Delhi government approved admission process of ACMS, which admitted only wards of serving and former army personnel who have taken common entrance test for NCT Delhi.

ACMS is a private institution and managed by the Army Welfare Education Society, which was allotted 25 acres of land by the ministry of defence. Though a private institute, ACMS was allowed to use facilities of the Army Hospital at Delhi for clinical training. Justice Reddy, writing the 165-page judgment, said, “Denial of access to higher education to socially and educationally backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes would potentially be dangerous to the ship of our nation.”

Supreme Court nixes 100% army kids? quota

More Education news