The Longest Constitution S02 E07: An important judgement on reservations- The Indra Sawhney Case

Is the word affirmative action in the Constitution of India? The Indra Sawhney judgement is important for not just the judgement itself but also the questions posed, which ran into ‘several hundreds of pages’. But what did the court say about the constitutionality of the reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBC’s)? And how does institutional prejudice work? This episode of The Longest Constitution looks at not only the judgement but also the shocking case about a man who cleared the IAS while he was serving his sentence in jail. But that's not the bit which is shocking!

Reading material:
Menon, Nivedita, 2012, Seeing like a feminist, Penguin.

Deshpande, Ashwini, 2013, Affirmative Action in India (Oxford India Short Introductions), OUP.

Bhatnagar, Rakesh, “Supreme Court paves the way for rape convict to join IAS”, Available at:

Case law:

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