In a major hit to Bihar’s last year’s reservation amendment, the Patna high court on Thursday scrapped 65% reservation for Backward Classes, extremely backward classes, Scheduled castes, and Scheduled tribes in Bihar.
In November, last year the Nitish Kumar government had increased the quotas in the Bihar state govt. jobs and educational institutions by 65% from 50%.
But, a division bench headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran after hearing a bunch of petitions in the matter, pulled them down.
The petition to pull down the increased quotas was filed on November 27, last year. Petitioners Naman Sharesth and Gaurav Kumar in their PIL challenged the decision of the Bihar govt. and described the reservation hike as a violation of fundamental rights.
Why Nitish Govt. Hiked the state reservations?
The Bihar high court while ruling has set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services Amendment Act, 2023, and said that the Bihar Reservations Amendment Act,2023 in educational institutions is a violation of the equality clause under articles 14,15 and 16.
On Oct 2 last year, Nitish Kumar expressed his concern about not being able to take a head count of backward social classes other than SC and ST.
According to last year’s Bihar state govt census report, OBCs and EBCs comprise a major 63% of the state’s total population, while the STs and SCs comprised of 21%.
That’s why a large chunk of reservation of 65% was important for the backward classes according to the Nitish Govt.
