Jat quota: Rajasthan High Court issues notices to Centre, state

JAIPUR: The Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday issued contempt of court notices to the Centre, state government officials and chairmen of backward classes' commissions for extending the OBC quota to Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur.

Notices were issued to Union cabinet secretary P K Sinha, National Backward Classes Commission chairman Justice V Eshwaraiah, state chief secretary Ashok Jain, assistant chief secretary (social justice and empowerment) J C Mohanty and State Backward Classes Commission chairman Jitendra Rai Goyal.

The division bench of justices K S Jhaveri and V K Vyas issued the notices on a petition filed by Mool Singh, a resident of Parbatsar in Nagaur district. Earlier in the day , the state assembly passed the Rajasthan Backward Classes (reservation of seats in educational institutions in the state and of appointments and posts in services under the state) Bill, 2017, which increased the OBC quota in the state from 21% to 26%, with 5% sub quota for Gujjars and four other communities.

The contempt petition argued that the high court had struck down the inclusion of Bharatpur-Dholpur Jats in the OBC quota on August 10, 2015, with a direction to the Centre as well as the state to revise the central list and state list of OBCs and review the in clusion of castes, groups and communities, including Bharatpur-Dholpur Jats, as the statutory period of 10 years had expired.

Shobhit Tiwari, counsel for the petitioner, said the high court order mandated that revisions would have to be made irrespective of representations and references for over inclusion and under inclusion of any backward class in the two lists. The revisions were also to be made for considering inclusion of those who have made representations or may make representations giving sufficient materials with quantifiable and contemporaneous data, after carrying out survey and field studies and analyzing such data for which the guidelines have been provided by the Supreme Court in judgments in Indra Sawhney and Ram Singh cases.

On the basis of an RTI reply, dated April 13, 2017, the petitioner told court that the state has categorically said it has not undertaken any revision exercise of backward classes as per the high court order passed in Captain Gurvinder Singh case. The petitioner told the court that the state government did not constitute a permanent backward commission within four months of the judgment of August 2015.