• No quota for children of former, current MPs and legislators.

• No to Creamy-Layer in 27 per cent OBC quota.

• Total reservations in educational institutions now 49.5 per cent.

• No decision on OBC quota in private colleges.

• No harm in implementing OBC quota this year.

• Review of OBC quota list every five years.

Total reservation in educational institutions now is 49.5%.

The apex court has decided that the Centre was legally right to provide OBC quotas in higher educational institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS).

The Court had put the quota on hold in 2007 after several petitions challenged it.

The key objection in the case is that the Government based the quota on a 1931 survey.

The OBC quota proposal had earlier led to widespread protests both for and against. However, the 27 per cent quota was passed unanimously by the Parliament.

The decision will impact 20 Central Universities, the IITs, IIMs and colleges supported by the Government. The Govern-ment is considering accepting the Mandal Commission's suggestion of 27 per cent reserva-tion for backward classes in Government educational institutions.

The new policy would take the overall reservation in the Government-funded higher education institutions from the current 22.5 (for SC and ST students) to 49.5 per cent.

In 2006, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had asked the State Governments to frame laws under the 104th Amendment of the Indian Constitution.

The amendment gives a right to all States to take adequate steps to ensure the upliftment of the socially and economically backward classes and means that the under-privileged should get a chance to secure admission in private institutes.

The trend of reservations started with the appointment of the Mandal Commission in 1980, which had proposed that 27 per cent of university admissions be reserved for backward and disadvantaged castes.