Judicial elites frame Dalit representation as a threat to merit and judicial independence

Evidence

Former President K.R. Narayanan, a Dalit himself, was mocked by the judicial fraternity when he suggested that Scheduled Castes and Tribes, who according to the 2011 Census make up 25 per cent of India’s 1.2 billion population, should find proportionate representation as judges in the Supreme Court. “Eligible persons from these categories are available and their under-representation or non-representation would not be justifiable,” he said in 1999. “Any reservation in judiciary is a threat to its independence and the rule of law,” was the response of a senior Supreme Court advocate. Another high-profile legal luminary said: “Job quotas are a vexed subject now. I believe the primacy of merit must be maintained.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 73

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘primacy of merit’ response echoes themes in the reader’s own library about how dominant classes naturalize their position through ideology.