Apex Court says no to Jats in OBC quota
18 March 2015 12:28 AM GMT
“We set aside the notification to implement Jats in the Central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC),” a bench of Justice Tarun Gogoi and Justice RF Nariman said.
The bench also found fault with the Centre’s decision to overlook the findings of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) stating that Jats do not deserve to be included in the Central list of OBCs as they don’t form a socio-economic backward class. “Caste, though a prominent factor, cannot be the sole factor of determining the backwardness of a class,” the bench said, while referring to the historic judgement rendered by a larger bench on the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations on OBC reservations. The bench also said the “possible wrong inclusion of a class in the past cannot be a basis for the further wrong inclusion”.
The UPA government had issued the notifications ahead of the Lok Sabha polls with an eye on a large chunk of Jat voters in western UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. Meanwhile Union Minister for Rural Development and Jat leader Chaudhary Birender Singh on Tuesday expressed his dissatisfaction over the Supreme Court ruling. “This is a court’s decision, but on the basis of societal demarcations, if Yadavs and Gujjars can get reservations, why not Jats?”questioned Singh, who belongs to the Jat community . “The Jat organisations will protest against this ruling and appeal against it, and I am confident justice will prevail,” he added.
The bench also found fault with the Centre’s decision to overlook the findings of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) stating that Jats do not deserve to be included in the Central list of OBCs as they don’t form a socio-economic backward class. “Caste, though a prominent factor, cannot be the sole factor of determining the backwardness of a class,” the bench said, while referring to the historic judgement rendered by a larger bench on the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations on OBC reservations. The bench also said the “possible wrong inclusion of a class in the past cannot be a basis for the further wrong inclusion”.
The UPA government had issued the notifications ahead of the Lok Sabha polls with an eye on a large chunk of Jat voters in western UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. Meanwhile Union Minister for Rural Development and Jat leader Chaudhary Birender Singh on Tuesday expressed his dissatisfaction over the Supreme Court ruling. “This is a court’s decision, but on the basis of societal demarcations, if Yadavs and Gujjars can get reservations, why not Jats?”questioned Singh, who belongs to the Jat community . “The Jat organisations will protest against this ruling and appeal against it, and I am confident justice will prevail,” he added.
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