Bihar moves Supreme Court challenging High Court ruling against quota hike
In November, Bihar’s legislature had increased caste-based reservations in education and government jobs from 50% to 65%.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Patna High Court’s judgement striking down amendments made by the state legislature in November to increase caste-based reservations in education and government jobs from 50% to 65%, Bar and Bench reported.
The state government has challenged the High Court’s June 20 verdict that came on a batch of petitions alleging that the amendment violated equal opportunity for citizens.
In November, the Bihar legislature passed a bill to raise the quota slabs. The bill aimed to increase the reservations for Scheduled Castes to 20%, up from 16%. The quota for Scheduled Tribes was to be doubled from 1% to 2%.
It also raised the reservations for the Other Backward Classes to 15% from 12% and for the Extremely Backward Classes to 25% from 18%. Combined with another 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections, the total quota limit in the state would have increased to 75%.
Rakesh Kumar, one of the petitioners in the High Court, had argued that it was not prudent on the part of the Bihar government to raise the quota limit when the Supreme Court had quashed similar decisions in the past.
The Supreme Court had in 1992 put in place a 50% limit on caste-based reservations.
On June 20, a High Court bench of Chief Justice...
