Equality justice and reverse discrimination in India

Present wide-spread preferential treatment
programmes being followed by the State for
the uplift of weaker sections of society have
of generated a great deal controversy
among legal scholars, judges, philsophers,
sociologists and the members of general
public. These programmes have been criti-
cised both for their inadequacy and
excessiveness. The delicacy and complexity
of the problem has got further accentuated
in view of the bulk of the population putting
its claim for special treatment. In a country
with scarce resources and still more scarce
opportunities one should not get surprised if
some sort of vested interest gets attached
with backwardness.
Thus, a programme intended to bridge the
hiatus dividing the Indian people and to
bring about socio-economic integration has
become, atleast for the moment, a source of
conflict. In the process everything including
the constitutional provisions and their
interpretations have to be defended and
justified by resort to moral and rational
principles
Therefore, the importance of the subject for
thorough academic research is self evident.
Consequently, the author has dispassionately
sought to examine in this book the juridical
and constitutional questions arising out of
the policy of preferential treatment of
weaker sections of society.
The central assumption of the book is that
legal analysis alone is insufficient to decide
correctly the complex issues raised by the
policy of preferential treatment
programmes implementing it. An attempt
has thus been made to evaluate these
policies and programmes with reference to
and the various theories of justice. An attempt has
also been made to see how far American
analysis and experiences are relevant in the
Indian context.