New Delhi: India will seek to amend a law on caste-based reservations that will allow educational institutions an additional year to increase the number of seats to accommodate more students, a minister said.

The Union cabinet on Thursday approved introducing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Bill, 2008, in Parliament, information and broadcasting minister P.R. Dasmunsi said on Thursday. “The legislation shall be introduced immediately,” he said.

The Supreme Court had in April upheld a law providing 27% reservation for other backward castes, or OBCs, in Central educational institutions, but said the “creamy layer” among OBCs would be excluded. With the court clearing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act of 2006, the institutions would have to implement the reservations in the 2008-09 academic session.

“These institutes had been given three years to increase their seats but now it is felt that they need an additional year to comply with the act,” said a government official, who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media.