The Court has set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act, 2023 and The Bihar (In admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 as ultra vires and violative of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16.
The move comes after the Bihar legislature in 2023 had given nod to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes and SC, STs from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.
The SC in 1992 had said that reservations beyond 50 per cent will affect Article 14, which speaks of right to equality.
Several states have tried to provide quotas for particular communities and provincial groups such as Jats and Marathas as well as Muslims only to get tangled in the not-morethan-50% rule.
A five-judge Constitution bench of the SC in 2021 refused to re-examine its 1992 verdict in the Indra Sawhney case of capping quota at 50 per cent.”To change the 50 per cent limit is to have a society which is not founded on equality but based on caste rule. If reservation goes above 50 per cent limit which is reasonable, it will be a slippery slope, the political pressure makes it hard to reduce the same,” Justice Ashok Bhushan had said at the time.
(more to come)
