The Supreme Court on 17th of May 2006 referred the issue of 27% reservation for OBCs in central educational institutions to a larger Bench. Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan will now constitute the Bench, in which the controversial law will go through the apex court's scrutiny for the second time. A Bench of the court, consisting of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Lokeswar Singh Penta, while referring the case to a larger Bench, said, "The larger Bench will examine whether the government has got the powers to evolve reservation policies without any restrictions." The larger Bench will have to review the 93rd constitutional amendment by which Article 15(5) was inserted to provide reservation to the socially backward sections," the court said .
The Court said: So far as appropriation of quota by the State and enforcement of its reservation policy is concerned, we do not see much of difference between non-minority and minority unaided educational institutions. ….. the States have no power to insist on seat sharing in the unaided private professional educational institutions by fixing a quota of seats between the management and the State.