Parliament should pass a law to do away with the 50% cap on caste-based reservations in education and government jobs, the Congress said on Sunday.
This came a day after Janata Dal (United), a key constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, passed a resolution demanding the inclusion of the Bihar government’s law raising reservations to 65% in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Ninth Schedule contains a list of central and state laws that cannot be challenged in court.
On Sunday, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that during the Lok Sabha election campaign, his party had demanded that state laws related to reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and all backward classes should be included in the ninth schedule of the Constitution, as was the case with a Tamil Nadu law from 1994 which allowed the continuation of 69% reservation in the state.
“It is a good thing that JD(U) has made the same demand in Patna yesterday,” Ramesh said. “But its ally BJP, both in the state and at the Centre, is completely silent on this matter.”
He added: “However, bringing reservation laws beyond the 50% limit into the ninth schedule is also not a solution, because according to a 2007 Supreme Court decision, such laws are also subject to judicial review.”
According to the former Union minister, the only way out in such a situation is that Parliament must pass a Constitution Amendment Bill enabling reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes to exceed 50%.
Ramesh noted that the 50% limit on reservations has not been explicitly mandated in the Constitution, but has been imposed through various Supreme Court decisions.
“Our demand is that such a bill should be introduced in the next session of Parliament,” said the Congress leader. “JD(U) should not be limited to just passing resolutions.”
On June 20, the Patna High Court struck down amendments made by the Bihar legislature to increasecaste-based quotas in education and government jobs from 50% to 65%.
The Bihar legislature had passed a bill to raise the quota slabs in November. 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 been increased to 75%.
Also read: How Supreme Court put in place a 50% quota cap (and why it’s frequently breached)
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