Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday reiterated his party’s commitment to “demolish the artificial barrier of 50% reservations” in the country, reported PTI.
His statement came a day before the Congress government in Telangana launched a caste survey in the state. With this, Telangana will become the third state to carry out such a survey after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
“I am proud of the Telangana leadership for taking this up and we are fully committed to the caste census,” The Hindu quoted Gandhi as saying at a state-level consultation on caste census in Hyderabad.
He added: “There will be shortcomings but, we will try to iron out by having conversations between civil society, people and the government.”
Gandhi also asserted that the caste survey would decide the country’s governance system and become a “political instrument to define how this country progresses”.
“If we want to talk of happiness or progress of the country, let us first first identify the nature of discrimination,” he said. “I cannot ignore the fact there is massive discrimination and cannot lie to Dalits, Adivasis, women, Other Backward Classes or minorities.”
The 50% cap on reservations was put in place by the Supreme Court in 1992 when it ruled that “no provision of reservation or preference can be so vigorously pursued as to destroy the very concept of equality”.
It had stated: “It should be held as constitutional prohibition and any reservation beyond 50% would be liable to be struck down.”
The court had added that the 50% rule for reservations in government jobs and education may be deviated from “in certain extraordinary situations”, but in doing so, “extreme caution is to be exercised and a special case made out”.
The Congress, however, has repeatedly called for a caste census in order to implement quotas proportional to the population of communities.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year, Gandhi had said that the Opposition INDIA bloc would “throw out” the 50% cap on caste-based reservations if it is voted to power.
In July, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Parliament should pass a law to do away with the 50% cap on caste-based reservations.
In November 2023, the Bihar legislature unanimously passed a bill to raise the quota slabs from 50% to 65%. 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%.
However, on June 20, the Patna High Court struck down the changes. The court said that the bill was “infringing upon the right to equality”.
The High Court’s order was upheld by the Supreme Court in July.
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