Headlines
SC quashes extension of OBC reservation to Jats
New Delhi, March 17
The Supreme Court on
Tuesday quashed the March 4, 2014, notification by the then UPA
government extending OBC reservation to Jats in nine states, ignoring
the recommendation of the National Commission for Backward Classes to
the contrary.
The decision was also endorsed by the Modi
government, brushing aside the suggestion that it was rooted in
electoral exigencies of the previous government.
An apex court
bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said:
"We cannot agree with the view taken by the union government that Jats
in the nine states in question are a backward community so as to be
entitled to inclusion in the Central List of Other Backward Classes."
"Inclusion of politically organised class such as Jats... can't be affirmed," said Justice Gogoi, pronouncing the judgment.
"Neither
can any longer backwardness be a matter of determination on the basis
of mathematical formulae evolved by taking into account social, economic
and educational indicators", the court said, thrashing the cabinet
decision to ignore the advice of the NCBC saying it was devoid of
ground realities.
Determination of backwardness, the court said
"must also cease to be relative; possible wrong inclusions cannot be the
basis for further inclusions but the gates would be opened only to
permit entry of the most distressed. Any other inclusion would be a
serious abdication of the constitutional duty of the state".
Holding
that the notification issued on March 4, 2014 was not justified, the
court said: "The view taken by the NCBC to the contrary is adequately
supported by good and acceptable reasons which furnished a sound and
reasonable basis for further consequential action on the part of the
union government."
"In the above situation, we cannot hold the notification dated 4.3.2014 to be justified," the court said.
"Accordingly...
the aforesaid notification... including the Jats in the Central List of
Other Backward Classes for the States of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Bharatpur and Dholpur
Districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is set aside and
quashed."
The court decision quashing the notification came while
deciding a batch of petitions challenging the March 4, 2014
notification.
Pointing out that the date on which the exercise of
extending reservation is undertaken "has to be contemporaneous", the
court said that most of the data, except in the case of Haryana, was at
least a decade old.
"Outdated statistics cannot provide accurate
parameters for measuring backwardness for the purpose of inclusion in
the list of Other Backward Classes. This is because one may legitimately
presume progressive advancement of all citizens on every front i.e.
social, economic and education," the court said.
Any other view (not recognising the social, economic and education) would "amount to retrograde governance".
The
court hauled up the decision as negative governance and said: "Yet,
surprisingly the facts that stare at us indicate a governmental
affirmation of such negative governance in as much as decade old
decisions not to treat the Jats as backward, arrived at on due
consideration of the existing ground realities, have been re-opened,
inspite of perceptible all round development of the nation."
"This is the basic fallacy inherent in the impugned governmental decision that has been challenged in the present proceedings."