5. Reservation in Services: (1) The sub-committee voted on the general proposition that there shall be reservation in the public services for the different communities mentioned in groups A, B and C of paragraph 3(3).
It was agreed that the provisions, if any, regarding reservations should appear in a schedule to the Constitution Act and should have the force of a directive of Government policy. The decisions were as follows:
(i) Agreed by a majority of votes (16 to 1) that there shall be reservation in the services for the Scheduled Castes.
(ii) Agreed by a majority of votes (9 to 7) that there shall be reservation in the services for Muslims.
(iii) Agreed by a majority of votes (6 to 1) that there shall be reservation in the services for Sikhs.
(iv) Agreed by a majority of votes (12 to 1) that there shall be reservation in the services for Plains tribes in Assam.
(v) Agreed by a majority of votes (12 to 3) that there shall be reservation in the services for Anglo-Indians.
Note: The Parsees and the Indian Christians did not ask for reservation in services.
(2) Mr. Ali Zaheer moved the following resolution:
This committee recommends that in the Provincial as well as Central services, the claims of all the minorities should be kept in view in making appointments to such services consistently with the consideration of efficiency of administration. The committee further recommends that suitable provision to this effect may be embodied in some form in the Constitution or in some other way.
When this proposition was put before the sub-committee, Chaudhari Khaliquzzaman raised the point that the proposition was out of order in view of the decision already taken in para 5(1) above. The Chairman did not accept this view.
Nine members voted for Mr. Ali Zaheer’s proposition and 9 against.
(3) The sub-committee then considered the question as to whether seats should be reserved even for posts for which competitive examinations are held. The decisions were as follows:
(i) Agreed by a majority of votes (11 to 6) that there should be reservation for Scheduled Castes in services to which recruitment was made by competitive examination.
(ii) Decided by a majority of votes (8 to 7) that there should be no such reservation for Muslims, Sikhs and tribesmen. Note: Anglo-Indians did not want reservation in services of this category. Parsees and Indian Christians did not want reservation in any whether filled by competition or otherwise.
(4) Chaudhari Khaliquzzaman, before these proposals were put to vote. raised a point of order that as the sub-committee had already decided on reservation in the services for certain communities in unqualified terms, it was not in order now to break up the proposition into compartments and vote on each of them separately. The Chairman did not accept this view on the ground that it had from the very beginning been understood that these matters would be considered separately. On this ruling being given, Ch. Khaliquzzaman and the Hon’ble Mr. Ismail Chundrigar abstained from taking part in the voting on the above propositions.
Subsequently, Maulana Hifzur Rahman also raised the same point of order, and the Chairman again ruled it out.
(5) The next question examined was on what basis reservation should be made in those cases in which the committee had decided in favour of reservation. It was proposed that reservation should be on the basis of population. This was rejected by the sub-committee by a majority of 9 to 8 votes.