HORIZONTAL QUOTA

Subject: Polity

Context: Governor of Tamilnadu granted assent to the Bill that provides a 7.5% horizontal quota in undergraduate medical courses to students of government schools who have qualified in NEET.

Concept:

• All reservations are not of the same nature. There are two types of reservations, which may, for the sake of convenience, be referred to as ‘vertical reservations’ and ‘horizontal reservations’.
• The reservations in favour of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes [(under Article 16(4)] may be called vertical reservations.
• Whereas reservations in favour of physically handicapped, Women , Ex-servicemen etc (under clause (1) of Article 16] can be referred to as horizontal reservations.
• Horizontal reservations cut across the vertical reservations – what is called interlocking reservations.
• Vertical quota is an Over and Above system. Horizontal Quota is a Minimum Guarantee system
• Minimum Guarantee System : Example -> OBC are guaranteed say 30% minimum
• Over and Above System : Example -> OBC are guaranteed 30% over and above whatever they get.