Indias Supreme Court has put on hold controversial plans to boost places for lower-caste and other disadvantaged people in colleges and universities, BBC reported Thursday.
Under the governments affirmative action (plan for positiv særbehandling) plan the lower castes share of places in educational institutions would more than double to nearly 50 per cent.
The move has split the country, with many arguing it could hurt Indias rapid economic rise. But it has the support of millions of students from underprivileged groups.
The court told the government to put the programme on hold until August. It said the government needed to provide fresh data on lower castes – also known as Other Backward Castes or OBCs in official language – because it said it found the present data too old.
The present 27 per cent seat allocation is based on the population of OBCs in India, according to the census carried out in 1931.
