Bihar govt moves SC challenging HC verdict striking down quota hike

The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Patna high court verdict that has set aside the amended reservation laws in the state, which enabled the Nitish Kumar government to increase the quotas for Dalits, tribals and backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.

In its June 20 verdict, the high court declared that the amendments, passed unanimously by the state's bicameral legislature in November last year, were 'ultra vires' of the Constitution, 'bad in law' and 'violative of the equality clause'.

The state's plea has been filed in the apex court through advocate Manish Kumar.

A division bench of the high court had allowed a bunch of petitions challenging the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the Bihar (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023, while 'leaving the parties to suffer their respective costs'.

In a detailed order running into 87 pages, the high court made it clear that it saw 'no extenuating circumstance enabling the state to breach' the 50-per cent cap on reservations laid down by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case.

"The state proceeded on the mere proportion of population of different categories as against their numerical representation in government services and educational institutions," the high court pointed out.

The amendments had followed a caste survey, which put the percentage of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) at a staggering 63 per cent of the state's total population, while the SCs and STs were stated to have accounted for more than 21 per cent.

The exercise was undertaken by the Bihar government after the Centre expressed its inability to carry out a fresh headcount of castes other than the SCs and STs, which was last held as part of the 1931 Census.