New Delhi: In a landmark judgement on Tuesday the Supreme Court of India scrapped the Centre’s notification to extend reservation under other backward classes (OBC) category to Jat community in nine states.
The judgement, reserved on December 17, 2014, was pronounced by a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman.
The apex court found fault with the Centre’s decision to overlook the recommendation of the National Commission for Backward Classes that Jat is not a backward class.
Quashing the March 4, 2014, notification by the then UPA government, the SC said, “We can’t agree that politically organised Jats are backward class so as to be entitled to OBC reservation.”
“Inclusion of politically organised class such as Jats… can’t be affirmed”, said Justice Gogoi pronouncing the judgment.
Talking to reporters outside the court, advocate Omveer Singh said the apex court stated that caste, though a prominent factor, cannot be the sole factor to decide backwardness, and refused to consider Jat community as backward.
Possible wrong inclusion of a caste in the OBC list in the past cannot be the basis of further wrong inclusions, added the SC.
The batch of petitioners, while challenging the United Progressive Alliance government`s decision to extend reservation to Jats by including them in OBC category, had contended that Jats were politically and socially advanced and the decision to extend reservation to them was politically and electorally motivated.
The UPA government had announced reservation for Jats on the eve of General Elections held in May 2014.
Ironically, the Narendra Modi government too had backed the UPA decision to extend OBC reservation to Jats, saying that it was not inspired by electoral considerations but a bonafide decision in public interest.
“As regards the averments that the central government with a motive to gain benefit for the ruling political parties in the forthcoming General Election issued the said notification, this fact is denied as unfounded,” the central government had said in its affidavit filed in the apex court on August 11, 2014.
“It is a submitted that the central government has acted bona fide and in public interest,” it had said.
Seeking the dismissal of the petition by OBC Reservation Raksha Samiti and others challenging the extension of OBC reservation to Jats in nine states, the affidavit had said: “In the present case, the advice tendered by the National Commission for Backward Classes was rejected by the Cabinet for the reason that the commission has not adequately taken into account the ground realities.”
(With Agency inputs)