1% quota bill for Gujjars & 5 others cleared in assembly

Jaipur: The state assembly on Wednesday passed four bills, including the quota bill to grant 1% reservation to Gujjars and five other communities in addition to their share in the 21% reservation given to Other Backward Classes (OBC).
The other bills passed were the Code of Criminal Procedure (Rajasthan Amendment) bill, 2017, the Rajasthan Land Laws Repealing bill, 2018 and the Rajasthan Apartment Ownership (Amendment) bill, 2015.

The CrPC bill amends sections 273, 276 and 313 to allow courts to hold trials through video conferencing and amends section 9 to allow the Court of Session to hold its sittings at any other place in the sessions division without the consent of the prosecution and the accused. The CrPC section 195 too has been amended to simplify provisions of filing complaint by public servants.

The amendment bill on land laws is aimed at repealing obsolete and redundant Acts. The state has already repealed 483 such Acts. Four more Acts would now be repealed by the land laws repealing bill, 2018. These include the Rajasthan Revenue Laws (Extension) Act, 1957, the Rajasthan Holdings Consolidation Operation Validating Act, 1960, the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1966 and the Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1979.

The amendments in apartment ownership bill of 2015 were necessitated as four of its sections were similar to those provided in the Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA). The Centre had returned the 2015 bill, asking the state government to remove the four sections. The state assembly passed the amended bill after removing the four sections on Wednesday. The amended bill would now be resent to the Centre for approval.

The house on Wednesday debated primarily on the Rajasthan Backward Classes (Reservation of seats in educational institutions in the state and of appointments and posts in services under the state)(Amendment) bill, 2018, which amended the Act of 2017 with a similar title.

The earlier bill was amended as the Supreme Court, through its order dated November 13, 2017, restrained the state from exceeding the 50% cap on total reservation in government jobs and education institutes. Through the Act of 2017, the BJP government took total reservation to 54% by granting 5% separate quota to Gujjars and four other communities, which were clubbed as MBC (more backward classes). The bill of 2018 has amended section 10 of the 2017 Act, as it restricted the state from providing 1% additional quota to MBC communities and also debarred them sharing OBC quota.

The opposition Congress demanded that the 2018 bill be suspended for three months to know public opinion but the motion was turned down by the house on Wednesday. The opposition members, as well as BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari and independent MLA Manik Chand Surana, cornered the government for failing to get the Act of 2017 included in Constitution’s Schedule IX, to take it away from the purview of judicial scrutiny and, thereby, shield the quota in excess of the 50% limit.

Congress MLA Dhiraj Gurjar demanded that the government should grant 5% quota to Gujjars within the 50% limit. Parliamentary affairs minister Rajendra Rathore countered Gurjar by asking him to get a resolution to this effect passed by the Congress Legislature Party. Congress whip Govind Singh Dotasra, however, said the BJP should take lead for the resolution since it was in power.