Striking down quota hike in Bihar 'regresive judgment': CPI(ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya

New Delhi, June 20 (PTI) Calling the Patna High Court decision to strike down increase in reservation provided by the Bihar government a "regressive judgment", Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Thursday said Parliament should bring in some legislation in this regard.

The Patna High Court on Thursday struck down the last year's decision of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar to raise quotas for Dalits, backward classes and tribal communities from 50 to 65 per cent following a caste survey.

The caste survey and the increase in reservation were undertaken at a time when the Congress-RJD-CPI(ML) were a part of the Bihar government.

"I think it's a very, very, very regressive judgment," Dipankar told PTI.

Countering the argument that it was a violation of the right to equality, he said 10 per cent reservation to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) provided by the Union government had already breached the 50 per cent reservation limit.

With the EWS reservations, the total reservation -- including 7.5 per cent, 15 per cent and 27 per cent quotas for Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) respectively -- goes up to 59.5 per cent.

"They are saying that the right to equality has been violated. Basically, it was paved by the central government when it introduced 10 per cent EWS," he said.

"I find EWS again a complete misnomer, because if you are talking about economically weaker sections, they are to be found more in SCs and STs and OBCs than elsewhere. So basically, you are actually trying to give reservation to the non-OBCs or non-SCs, the so-called upper castes," he said.

Bhattacharya said the 10 per cent reservation to EWS, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court, "actually violated the so-called 50 per cent cap".

Therefore, he asked, once the Centre opened the way to breach the 50 per cent cap, what stops the states to have their own caste census and arrive at their own state-specific sort of formula of reservation quota.

"So, I think what the Bihar assembly did following the caste census... the government did, and all parties were in fact together in this, was the right thing. And I find it pretty regressive and unfortunate that the high court has quashed it," he said.

The CPLI(ML) leader said Parliament should bring in some legislation, "maybe on the Ninth schedule".

"At the end of the day, reservation is about deep and adequate representation. Actually, the question of reservation should be raised to the level of representation. And we have a long way to go," he said.

The Nitish Kumar government on November 21 issued gazette notifications for raising the quota for the deprived castes from 50 to 65 per cent in the state government jobs and educational institutions.

The quotas were increased following a comprehensive survey of castes which gave a fresh estimate of the population of SCs, STs, OBCs and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) in Bihar.

According to the survey, OBCs and EBCs comprised a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population while SCs and STs, taken together, accounted for more than 21 per cent.

The state government took the view that the Supreme Court's cap on reservations at 50 per cent had already been breached with the introduction of 10 per cent quotas for the EWS by the Centre and replicated in the provinces, including Bihar.

The state government then amended its reservation laws whereby the quotas for SCs, STs, OBCs and EBCs were raised from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. Taken together with the quotas for EWS, reserved seats in the state rose to 75 per cent of the total population.

The state government had also requested the Centre to place the amended reservation laws in the Constitution's Ninth Schedule which includes a list of central and state laws that cannot be challenged in the courts.

In 1992, the Supreme Court capped reservations for the backward classes at 50 per cent. PTI AO AO KSS KSS