Reservation in fraction? When in doubt, round off

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 6: When reservation permissible is 7.5 per cent , how many seats out of 100 should be allotted to the reserved category — 7 or 8? This was the question before the Delhi High Court in a recent petition filed by a student, who challenged the admission policy of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to allot only seven seats for STs for the 2006-07 MBBS course.
Drawing on law and simple mathematics, Justice Anil Kumar of the HC answered the “puzzle” thus: “If the reservation is in fraction, then how it should be considered, this has to be based on logic and common sense. Applying the principle of rounding off of mathematics which is, if part is one half or more, its value should be increased to one and if part less than half then its value should be ignored.”
Applying the reasoning to the facts of the case, the court further said “the inevitable inference in these facts and circumstances on the reasons as detailed herein is that for 7.5 per cent reservation for STs, the Government should have allocated eight seats. The respondents (University) have rather allocated only seven seats and therefore the respondents are liable to allocate one more seat for ST quota.”

The petitioner, Madan Mohan had taken the Combined Entrance Test for MBBS, 2006 and was ranked 6250 in the merit list. He, however, claimed to have fallen just short of a place in the admitted list as the University had allotted only seven seats for the ST pool complying with the requirement to set apart 7.5 per cent seats to the community. For 7.5 per cent reserved seats, the University could not allocate seven seats only as for half fraction or more, a full seat ought to have been allocated, Mohan insisted.
On behalf of the Union, it was submitted that two of the 100 seats were earmarked for citizens of Maldives, leaving only 98 seats. The mandated 7.5 per cent quota against 98 would be 7.35, which on rounding off would leave the scope for only seven seats, the Government contended. Brushing aside the argument, the HC referred to a decision of the Supreme Court that had adopted the rounding off rule in UPSC examinations and said the plea that the 7.5 per cent had to be calculated from 98 seats was not acceptable.