Affirmative Action and Discriminative Justice

Unit 1 — Equality

1. Meaning and scope, Rule of Law, Formal and Substantive equality; Equality before law and Equal Protection of Laws, · Reasonable Classification. · 2. Applying the concept of ‘Equality’ in law making and implementation; Similar and differential treatment · 3. Equality as a basic structure of the Constitution · 4. Discrimination-Meaning, Forms of Discrimination; Historical position of discrimination and inequalities in Indian society; · Stratification of the society.

• Article 14-18 — Right to Equality

Unit 2 — Justice And Discriminative Justice

1. Justice-Meaning and Forms-social, economic and political; · Various Theories of Justice; Discriminative Justice, Relation between Affirmative Action and Discriminative Justice. · 2. Constitutional recognition of Affirmative Action Preamble and the Equality provisions enshrined in Part III and Part IV of the Constitution; The relationship between Part III and Part · IV, Other provisions · 3. Utilitarianism, egalitarianism, and communitarianism · 4. Rawlsian theory of justice and its application to affirmative action.

Unit 3 — Affirmative Action and related concepts

1. Affirmative action, meaning and scope. · 2. Jurisprudential Debates on Affirmative Action · 3. Affirmative Action and the three arguments of Equality, · Diversity and Integration · 4. Critiques of affirmative action from a philosophical perspective · 5. The Idea of Fairness and Affirmative Action · 6. Caste-based discrimination and affirmative action · 7. Gender, disability, and other dimensions of identity in affirmative

Unit 4 — Affirmative Action in India

1. Affirmative Action in India: Origin, history and development of Affirmative Action, Affirmative Action for Women and · Children, Significant Judicial decisions · 2. Constitutional Foundation of Affirmative Action and · Reservation: Definition of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes · 3. Reservation in Service, Education and Political · Representation · 4. Judicial Debate on Caste, Social Backwardness and OBC · Reservations · 5. The jurisprudential propriety of extending Affirmative Action for Economically Weaker Sections

• Article 14-18 — Right to Equality

Unit 5 — The Dialectics of Affirmative Action

1. Meritocracy vs. diversity in educational institutions and workplaces · 2. Creamy layer concept and challenges of social mobility · 3. Alternatives to affirmative action: merit-based, need based scholarships, outreach programs, etc. · 4. Intersectionality and the impact of multiple forms of oppression · 5. Politics of Affirmative action and Judicial response.

Unit 6 — Policies for Distributive Justice

1. Policy of Economic-based reservation · 2. Affirmative Action for the Religious Minorities. · 3. Gender, Sexual Orientation and Affirmative Action. · 4. Implementation of Affirmative Action policies · 5. Revisiting the rationale for affirmative action · 6. Reform proposals and policy innovations · 7. Balancing equity and efficiency in distributive justice