A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Patna High Court on Monday challenging the decision of the Bihar government to increase reservation in the State from 50% to 65%.
Following the caste-based survey report, the government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had taken the decision to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The PIL plea has been filed by Gaurav Kumar and Naman Shrestha.
The Bihar Assembly on November 9 unanimously passed a Bill to increase reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes from the existing 50% to 65%.
Together with the 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota, the Bill has pushed reservation in Bihar to 75%, well past the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
According to the legislation, named the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill, quota for Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) has been raised from the existing 18% to 25%; for Backward Classes (BC) from 12% to 18%; for Scheduled Castes (SC) from 16% to 20%; and for Scheduled Tribes (ST), the quota has been doubled, from 1% to 2%. The existing 3% reservation for BC women has been scrapped.
During the discussion on the reservation Bill, Mr. Kumar had explained to the Assembly the reason behind increasing the quota.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar approved the Bills on November 18, 2023 followed by the State government issuing its notification in the gazette on November 21, 2023.
Bills providing for the same increase in reservation in educational institutions and government jobs which were drafted based on the survey were also passed.
The PIL said that as per the constitutional provisions, reservation was made to give proper representation to the socially and educationally backward classes and there was no provision to give reservation in proportion to the population.
‘Violation of rights’
The petition said the amended Act of 2023, passed by the State government, violated the fundamental rights of the Constitution. It further said the Act violated the equal right to appointment in government jobs and the fundamental right related to discrimination.
Janata Dal-(United) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh termed the PIL plea an act of the Opposition BJP.
“It is a well-known fact that the BJP is anti-reservation. The reservation was increased following the caste-based survey on the basis of population. Reservation in Bihar has already crossed the 50% cap after 10% was given to the EWS in upper caste. The BJP has the habit of going to courts; they did something similar during local bodies’ polls. The BJP also went from High Court to Supreme Court against caste-based survey. The State government will fight this battle too legally,” Mr. Singh said.
