The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that merit cannot be the basis for entry into public services and it cannot be a benchmark.

The RJD's counsel and senior advocate Ram Jethmalani told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan that "merit based upon genetic accident is being concretised by a few marks in the examination. But merit cannot be the basis for entry into public services. Merit cannot be a benchmark".

Jethmalani's remarks came during his arguments supporting the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation for Admission) Act 2007 providing for quota in central educational institutions.