Affirmative Action in India via Vertical, Horizontal, and Overlapping Reservations

Sanctioned by its constitution, India is home to the world's most comprehensive affirmative action program, where historically discriminated groups are protected with vertical reservations implemented as “set asides,” and other disadvantaged horizontal “minimum guarantees.” A mechanism mandated Supreme Court in 1995 suffers from important anomalies, triggering countless litigations India. Foretelling a recent reform correcting flawed mechanism, we propose 2SMG that resolves all characterize it desiderata reflecting laws of Subsequently rediscovered high court judgment enforced Gujarat, also endorsed Saurav Yadav v. State UP (2020) , ruling rescinded mechanism. While not explicitly enforced, indirectly for an subclass applications India, because no satisfies new mandates Court.