SC rejects review pleas on Jat quota

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 21

The Supreme Court today refused to change its ruling that Jats did not deserve reservation in education and jobs under the 27 per cent quota for other backward classes (OBCs).

A Bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman dismissed the review petitions by the Centre, the Jat Sabha Zila Meerut, Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti and the Akhil UP Jat Mahasabha.

On March 17 this year, the Bench had quashed the Centre’s March 4, 2014, notification including Jats in the Central list of OBCs for Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and six other states—Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (Bharatpur and Dholpur districts).

Within two weeks of the SC verdict, the Centre filed a petition seeking a review. This was followed by the review pleas of Jat organisations.

Before rejecting the review pleas, the same Bench today dismissed an application by 161 Jat candidates seeking employment in banks, contending that they had cleared the banking recruitment examination under the OBC quota.

The Bench said it had already ruled that Jats were not backward politically, economically, educationally or socially and as such, they were not entitled to the OBC quota.

The affected candidates had come to the SC following the banks’ refusal to appoint them. The banks had told the candidates that they were not in a position to issue appointment letters in view of the SC verdict that struck down the OBC quota for Jats.

The Supreme Court, however, refused to accept their plea that they had already cleared the recruitment test, so they should be appointed by the banks. Earlier, the SC had refused to relax its ruling against quota for Jats at least for the 2015-16 academic session for which the admission process had begun before its March 17 judgment.