[1] C Basavaraj, Reservation under the Constitution of India: Issues and Perspectives, 51 JILI, 267, (2009).

[2] Cass R. Sunstein, Affirmative Action, Caste, and Cultural Comparisons, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1311 (1999). 

[3] See, George Sher’s articles “Groups and Justice,” Ethics 87 (1977): 174–81, and “Diversity,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 28 (1999): 85–104, respectively.

[4] Ibid.

[5] T.E. Weisskopf, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA (Routledge, 2004).

[6] Will Kymlicka, CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION  11 (Oxford, 1990).

[7] John Rawls, A THEORY OF JUSTICE (2nd ed., Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 1999).

[8] Ibid.

[9] John Rawls, A THEORY OF JUSTICE (2nd ed., Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 1999).

[10] Constitutional Rights Foundation, BRIA 23 3c Justice as Fairness: John Rawls and His Theory of Justice, CRF USA (2007), https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-23-3-c-justice-as-fairness-john-rawls-and-his-theory-of-justice. 

[11] Supra, note 7.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Supra, note 7.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] He first mentioned this in his book A Theory of Justice. Ibid.

[20] Christopher Thomson, Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory in Political Philosophy, Oxford Repository (Aug, 27, 2020), https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1383;jsessionid=E5C784E7B091E9304CF86D3DEF249A67.

[21] “The Supreme Court in the California v Bakke ruled that a university’s use of racial quotas in its admission process was unconstitutional, but a school’s use of affirmative action to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances.” See, Alex McBride, Regents of University of California v Bakke 1978, Thirteen, (Dec. 2006), https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_regents.html.

[22] Thomas Nagel, John Rawls and Affirmative Action, Spring JBHE, 82, (2003).

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Samuel Freeman, RAWLS  90–91 (London: Routledge, 2007).

[26] Robert S. Taylor, Rawlsian Affirmative Action, 119 Ethics, 476 (2009).

[27] Such measures require the elimination of any kind of legal barriers on grounds of race, color, sex, etc and the requisite punishment for any kind of discrimination that takes place.

[28] This would involve sensitization and formal training, alongside external monitoring, and enforcement to achieve self-conscious impartiality.

[29] Special programmes which would cater to the disadvantaged sections to enable and foster their growth and empowerment.

[30] This involves compensatory discrimination in favor of disadvantaged groups by providing them “bonus points” in selection indices, without the explicit use of quotas.

[31] Hard quotas are the reservation of proportional shares of seats in education and employment for the underprivileged groups.

[32] Supra, note 24.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Janelle Garcelona, Fair Equality of Opportunity: Reconceiving Affirmative Action through a Rawlsian Lens, Claremont Education (2015), https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2038&context=cmc_theses.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Amartya Sen among others has argued against the unanimity of decision making behind the veil of ignorance.

[37] Amartya Sen, What Do We Want from a Theory of Justice? Jstor (2006), www.jstor.org/stable/20619936.

[38] An ardent Libertarian in his ideological philosophy.

[39] Robert Nozick, ANARCHY, STATE AND UTOPIA, (Basic Books, 1974).

[40] Ibid.

[41] Charles W Mill, BLACK RIGHTS/WHITE WRONGS: THE CRITIQUE OF RACIAL LIBERALISM 205 (Oxford University Press, 2017).

[42] Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University Communitarianism, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2020), https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/communitarianism/.

[43] Michael Sandel, LIBERALISM AND THE LIMITS OF JUSTICE (Cambridge University Press, 1998).

[44] Supra, note 7.

[45] The genesis of AA can be traced to the British times when the State of Mysore and subsequently Bombay and Madras Presidency introduced reservations for non-Brahmins in government employment.

[46] Wendy Singer, A Seat at the Table: Reservations and Representation in India’s Electoral System, 11 Election Law Journal, 202 (2012).

[47] The introduction of reservation for Other Backward Classes took place in 1993 after the Mandal Commission agitation took place, which was subsequently nuanced by the Supreme Court in the1993 Indira Sawhney Judgment that introduced the application of “creamy layer” for the OBC reservation. 

[48] Indian Const. Art. 14.; Indian Const. Art.15.; Indian Const. Art 16.; Indian Const. Art 17.

[49] Article 14 provides the Right to Equality and equal protection from the law, Article 15 provides a right against discrimination, while Article 16 provides the right to equality of opportunity. Each of these rights accommodated positive discrimination in favor of the disadvantaged groups in society.

[50] Reservation in India covers four major categories in the Union Government and varies across States. Principally, the preferred groups are Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Section of general category and in some States, women.