Single Credit Course on “Theory and Practice on Reservation Policies in India”

We are happy to share with you that the Centre for Public Policy, Law and Good Governance is offering a Single Credit Course on ‘Theory and Practice of Reservations Policies in India’. The course will be offered in physical mode at NLUO campus on 21.09.2023, 22.09.2024, 05.10.2024 and 06.10.2024. The Course is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students in law as well as other disciplines. Detailed information about the course is in the brochure.

About the Centre for Public Policy, Law and Good Governance

CPPLGG is a research-oriented Centre with a strong commitment to academic excellence and societal impact. Its goal is to provide a platform for students and researcher to engage in high-quality research, gain valuable skills, and collaborate with experts in the field. It is engaged in collaborative governmental research initiatives, contributing to policy development and generating meaningful solutions for societal challenges. The Centre was instrumental in the launching of the KHOJ (Know Your High Court Judges) dataset which includes personal, educational and professional information across 43 variables about all High Court judges appointed between 6 October 1993 (since the inception of the collegium) and 31 May 2021.

The dataset was a pioneering effort in India which created substantial avenues of further research on Indian High Courts. One can access some insights which emerged from the data as published by various media houses like The Print, Scroll, Leaflet,  IndiaSpend and India Today .One can also access the article in Economic and Political Weekly which relies on the KHOJ Dataset to critique the pattern of appointments in the High Courts.

About the Course

The discussion and debate on ‘reservation policies’ in India is often fraught with strong opinions and compromised by inherited biases, especially when it relates to caste-based reservation policies. The judicial history of how reservation policies have been handled by the courts is also complex. However, even in the legal fraternity, there is often not sufficient appreciation of the nuances involved in the debate and there is a tendency to reduce an extremely complex issue to the binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. This course is an attempt to reach out to young legal minds and facilitate a more informed deliberation on caste based reservation policies in India.

Topics to be Covered

1. Inter-generational consequences of caste-based discrimination
2. Affirmative Action Policies in Colonial India
3. Overall scheme of Affirmative Action under the Indian Constitution
4. Theoretical Foundation of Reservation Policies
5. Legal Thresholds for being identified as Scheduled Case, Scheduled Tribe or OBC
6. The Spectrum of Merit and Efficiency
7. Upper Ceiling of Reservation (50% Rule)
8. Reservation in Promotions and the Carry Forward Rule
9. The Conundrum of Creamy Layer
10. The Sub-Classification Whirlpool
11. Implementing Reservation: Preparing Reservation Register
12. Is Reservation a Fundamental Right?
13. Does India need a Sunset Clause on reservation policies?
14. Reforming Reservation: The Way Ahead?

About the Course Instructor

Prof. Rangin Pallav Tripathy is Professor of Law and Registrar at National Law University Odisha. He has completed his Fulbright-Nehru Post-doctoral Research Fellowship from Harvard Law School in 2019-20. He has successfully completed two research projects on the functioning of the judiciary sponsored by the Department of Justice, Government of India and another research project on women safety sponsored by the National Commission for Women. He is currently leading two internationally funded research projects on domestic violence and tobacco control. He has published more than 15 articles in highly reputed international and national journals. He is an active voice in contemporary developments in the field of constitutional law and his opinions have been published in more than 40 op-eds in various newspapers and news portals. His writings including op-eds can be accessed on his profile.

Brief Overview of the Course

Information Brochure