10% reservation for poor in govt jobs to continue

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 22

Economically backward persons (EBPs) belonging to general category will continue to enjoy the benefits of 10 per cent reservation in government jobs in the state. However, there would be no reservation for them in admission to educational institutions.

Putting the record straight in this regard, official sources said “the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dated September 22, 2016, delivered in the civil writ petition titled Kalindi Vashishtha versus state of Haryana and others was applicable in case of admissions only.”

The sources asserted that the quota for EBPs in government jobs had not been stayed by the High Court and would be taken into account in the ongoing recruitment drives as per the existing government instructions.

Ahead of the 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the Congress government, led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had come out with 10 per cent quota for the EBPs in 2013. The quota was vertical, which meant that anybody availing himself of reservation in any other category would not be eligible for reservation under this category.

Earlier, apparently with an eye on elections, the Hooda Government had come out with 10 per cent quota for five ‘special backward classes’ — Jats, Bishnois, Rors, Tyagis and Jat Sikhs — in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions. However, reservations to Jats and others castes in government jobs and admissions was later stayed by the court.

To mollify the restive Jat community against the backdrop of their violent agitation in February this year, the Khattar government brought a Bill in the Haryana Assembly creating a separate category (BC-C) for the Jats and other castes providing them with 10 per cent quota. But it was also stayed by the court.

Currently, Scheduled Castes have a quota of 20 per cent while Backward Classes has 27 per cent (BC-A 16% and BC-B 11%) reservaction. The EBPs get a reservation of 10 per cent. Notably, even after stay on 10 per cent quota to Jats and four other castes, Haryana still gives reservation of 57 per cent, which is above the 50 per cent quota limit fixed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney case.