Rajasthan High Court strikes down SBC quota for Gujjars, 5 other communities

The Rajasthan High Court struck down Special Backward Classes (SBC) reservation given to Gujjars and five other communities in the state.

The division bench of Justice MN Bhandari and JK Ranka on 9 December 2016 held that the special reservation beyond the permissible limit of 50 percent cannot be made. It also said that the OBC commission report of the state was calculated to favour these communities.

While terming the OBC commission’s report as favourable for these communities, the court also held that it earlier asked (on 22 December 2012) the state to review the entire reservation granted and not only a quantifiable report.

Background

The Rajasthan Cabinet on 28 November 2012 decided to provide a separate 5 percent quota to the SBCs without touching the 21 percent reservation which is available to other Backward Classes. The decision took the overall reservation in jobs and education to 54 percent.

The community, currently enjoying OBC status, had initially demanded its inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes and was later persuaded to accept the creation of a new reserved category for it.

Earlier in 2008, the state tried to increase five percent reservation over and above the prescribed limit, which was stopped by the High Court.