Informist, Wednesday, Jul 3, 2024

NEW DELHI – The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Patna High Court order which struck down the enhanced reservation of 65% in government jobs and educational institutions in the state. On Jun 20, the high court had held that raising the reservation beyond 50% was bad in law, based on the principles of equality in the Constitution.

The state government said that the high court had transcended beyond the legitimate scope of judicial review by substituting "opinion of state" as to the adequacy of representation with its own opinion. "The impugned judgement further failed to appreciate that it is trite law that the 50?iling is not an inviolable rule and may be breached in exceptional circumstances," said the state government.

The high court gravely erred in holding that the backward classes are adequately represented solely because the reserved communities together constitute 68.52% of the total government jobs and observed that there "is no requirement for the enhancement of reservations", said the state government. The high court disregarded the collection of data in the caste survey and the state's analysis of its socio-economic import solely because the methodology adopted was not the same as that adopted by the Mandal Commission. In 1979, the commission was formed with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward classes" of India.

The state government said that neither the process nor the validity of the caste survey was ever challenged before the high court. The caste survey was completed with more than 98% participation and voluntary full disclosure of all the parameters, said the government. No state has hitherto passed such an amendment based on real-time data with Bihar being the only state to conduct such a survey, the government added.

The high court was hearing a bunch of petitions against the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Act, 2023, and the Bihar Reservation (in Admission to Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023. Based on a caste survey, the state government had last year brought about amendments to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in educational institutions and government jobs to 65% from 50%.

A bench of Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Harish Kumar had set aside the two laws "as ultra vires the Constitution and violative of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16". The high court noted a judgement by the Supreme Court's constitution bench in 1992, in which it was observed that combined reservation should not exceed the 50% limit except in exceptional circumstances.

The high court said that the exception provided to exceed the 50% limit was confined and restricted to extenuating circumstances and characteristically inherent aspects akin to far-flung area. "The state of Bihar is neither a far flung or remote area nor is it out of the mainstream of national life, making an overbreadth of the 50% limit an imperative measure," the court said.

The high court had said that the Bihar government attempted no in-depth study or analysis before enhancing the reservation percentage. The state government proceeded on the mere proportion of the population of different categories as against their numerical representation in government services and educational institutions, the bench said. This works against the core principles of Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution, it said. The court had said that there was no scientific analysis conducted by the Bihar government on the caste census data, nor was any expert appointed for this. End

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Maheswaran Parameswaran

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