No Special Case Made Out For Breaching Ceiling Limit of 50%: Chhattisgarh High Court Strikes Down 58% Reservation In Education & Jobs

The Chattisgarh High Court has struck down a 2011 Amendment that provided 58% reservation to SCs, STs and OBCs in recruitment and entrance examinations in the state. A Division Bench of Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and Justice P.P. Sahu quashed the reservation policy and held, "We are of the opinion that no special case is made out for breaching the reservation ceiling limit of 50% while increasing the reservation to 58%. Inadequacy of representation in services under the State or inadequacy of representation in educational institutions is relevant to the extent reservation is sought to be pegged below 50% but if the ceiling is to be crossed, then inadequacy in representation cannot be the sole determining factor and there has to be exceptional circumstances."It held that the failure to secure a job or a seat in an educational institution by a reserve category candidate competing with candidates belonging to the general category could not be construed as an exceptional circumstance. The court also declared unconstitutional a 2012 notification in so far it relates to reservation for districts of Surguja, Surajpur, Balrampur-Ramanujganj, Jashpur, Koria and Surguja Division. BackgroundThe Chattisgarh High Court was dealing with a batch of writ petitions challenging the 2011 amendment made to The Chattisgarh Lok Seva (Anusuchit Jatiyon, Anusuchot Jan Jatiyon Aur Anya Pichere Wargo Ke Lie Arakshan) Adhiniyam, 1994. The said rules were enacted to reserve vacancies in public services and posts and to certain educational institutions established, maintained or aided by the State Government in in favour of the persons belonging to SC, ST and OBC.Section 4 of the 1994 Act provides for the fixation of percentage for reservation of posts and standards of evaluation. By the Chhattisgarh Lok Seva (Anusuchit Jatiyon, Anusuchit Jan Jatiyon Aur Anya Pichere Wargon Ke Liye Aarakshan) Sanshodhan Adhiniyam, 2011 (for short, Amendment Act of 2011), Section 4(2)(i) of the Act of 1994 was substituted, which was the bone of contention in the petitions before the Court. Through the amendment, the quota for reserved classes in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions was scaled to 58 per cent (SC- 12%; ST-32%; AND OBC - 14%). The main contention of the petitioners was that the effect of amending Section 4(2) of the 1994 Act raises reservation to 58% and thus is unconstitutional to the reservation principle laid down by the Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney & Ors v. Union of India & Others, and M.R. Balaji & Ors v. The State of Mysore & Ors. Advocate Vinay Kumar Pandey, appearing for the petitioners, argued same is also in violation of the principles of equality of opportunity under A. 16(1) of the Constitution of India. It was also pleaded that reducing the percentage drastically from 16% to 12% in respect of SC in all posts is not tenable as they are not adequately represented in service. Similarly, an increase of percentage from 20 to 32% in respect of STs was also stated to be without any rationale basis.State's ResponseThe State's response to the petitions emphasized that the Act came into existence when the State of Madhya Pradesh was a part of the State of Chhattisgarh. In 2000, the reorganization bifurcated the two states and allocated several tribal districts to the State of Chattisgarh. The Scheduled Castes dominant sections castes primarily formed the new State of Madhya Pradesh and a number of tribal districts got allocated to Chattisgarh, it was argued. "The population of OBC continued to be substantially the same in both States. At the relevant time, there were 27 districts in the State of Chhattisgarh with a total population of 28.83 million, out of which the SC population was 2.42 million, and the ST population was 6.62 million as per the 2001 census. Thus, the SC population constituted about 12% of the total population of the State, while the ST population constituted approximately 31.76%. It is pleaded that poverty amongst STs is 54.8% compared to the All India figure of 44.7%," the State argued. Before the issuance of the office memorandum, reservation of posts in Group C and D Central Government posts in the State of Chhattisgarh stood at 14% for SCs, 23% for STs and then, the Government of Chhattisgarh followed a policy of reservation of 16% for SCs, 20% for the STs and 14% for OBCs in respect of Class III and IV posts corresponding to Group C and D posts of the Central Government. The State's response pleaded that due to demographic chanS.C.sin thS.T.sopulation of the SCs and STs because of the bifurcation into two states, the Government of Chhattisgarh decided to review and re-frame the existing reservation policy for the State cadre posts, based on the data from the 2001 Census. In the process, numerous representations were received from the tribal groups, demanding a revision in the State's reservation policy. The State pleaded that the revised reservation policy is constitutionally valid. The...

No Special Case Made Out For Breaching Ceiling Limit of 50%: Chhattisgarh High Court Strikes Down 58% Reservation In Education & Jobs

Shrutika Pandey

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