New Delhi: The Central Government's plan to keep the seats reserved for backward category students, vacant for at least three years in the state-run higher educational institutions in case all such seats are not filled, was stayed by the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday.

A Bench comprising of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakkar, R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari dismissed the Government's idea to keep the reserved seats vacant and said, "Don't allow the seats to be vacant."

The bench was hearing a plea seeking clarification on the April 10 verdict by the SC which upheld the law for 27 pc quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in state-run higher educational institutions.

The plea sought whether the seats reserved for candidates belonging to the OBC category, which remained vacant, could be allocated to general category candidates.

It also sought to know whether the cut-off marks for admission to the OBC category could be relaxed by about 10 percent.

The plea, made by Prof P.V. Indrasen of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) and some other academicians in three high courts across the country namely in Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, was transferred to the Supreme Court on a petition by the Government.

Replying on behalf of the Government, solicitor general Goolam E. Vahanvati said that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had increased its seats by 27 percent for the OBCs in one go despite the Government's plan to increase the seats in a phased manner over a period of years, with a nine percent increase every year.

Vahanvati added that JNU had increased its seats and infrastructure in one go and several seats under the backward category quota were left vacant. The Government then allowed the transfer of the vacant seats to general category.

He, however, wanted all other higher education institutions to increase their seats in a phased manner, to leave them vacant for at least three years.

The bench rejected the Government's proposal saying that it would be a waste of national resources and fixed the next hearing on November 18.

In its April 10 verdict, three out of the five judges of the bench - Justice Pasayat, Justice Thakkar and Justice Bhandari - had favoured distributing the vacant seats reserved for backward category students to those in the general category.

In their joint verdict, Justice Pasayat and Justice Thakkar had also favoured that the cut-off marks for admission of backward category students should not be lowered beyond five percent for general students.

Justice Bhandari, however, had said the cut-off marks should not be lowered beyond 10 percent to ensure that "merit does not become an absolute casualty".

Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for Prof. Indrasen, submitted to the bench that there were no takers for the 432 backward category seats at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B).

He said that as the entire infrastructure for admitting 432 seats had been put in place, the court should ensure that it should not be wasted.