PIL filed in Patna HC against increase in reservation for deprived castes
Patna: Two persons have jointly filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Patna High Court challenging the Nitish Kumar government’s decision to increase reservation for EBC, OBC, SC and ST in Bihar to 65 per cent.
Petitioners Gaurav Kumar and Naman Shrestha claimed that increasing the reservation limit above 50% is a violation of the Constitution and the fundamental rights of the common people.
Gaurav Kumar said, “As per the provision of the Constitution, the reservation criteria will be given on the basis of social and financial status of people belonging to backward classes and not on the basis of population of caste.”
“Nitish Kumar government increased reservation to 65% on the basis of population of castes. Therefore, 65 percent reservation has been given to EBC, OBC, SC and ST. That means 35 percent people of other castes fall in the general category. This is a violation of the fundamental rights of the common people in Bihar,” Kumar said.
The Nitish Kumar government used the Bihar Reservation Amendment Act 2023, passed in both houses of the Bihar Assembly on November 10 this year, and Governor RV Arlekar approved the Act on November 18. This Act was based on the results of a recently conducted caste-based survey. ,
With this, people belonging to Extremely Backward Caste (EBC), Other Backward Caste (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) of Bihar will get the benefit of reservation up to 65 percent. Earlier reservation was 50%. Bihar government has also given 10% reservation to EWS in upper caste category in the state. Therefore, a total of 75% reservation has been given to people falling under reserved category and EWS. This will help the candidates in getting admission in various educational institutions as well as in government jobs.
People coming under EBC earlier used to get 18% reservation. After this bill, Bihar government has increased the reservation to 25%. Similarly, OBC category which had 12% reservation will now get 18% reservation. SC earlier had 16% reservation and will get 20% and ST with 1% reservation will get 1% more taking it to 2%.
Bihar is not the first state to provide 75% reservation for EBC, OBC, SC, ST and EWS. According to the new reservation bill, there is 79% reservation in Tamil Nadu, 77% in Jharkhand, 76% in Chhattisgarh, 75% in Telangana and 72% in Maharashtra.
