Supreme Court rejects reservation to Jats under OBC quota

Supreme Court (SC) has rejected the notification issued by Union Government to include Jats in the Central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) for the benefit of reservation.
The Supreme Court (SC) held that

• Union Government took this decision by overlooking the findings of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). In its report NCBC had stated that Jats do not deserve to be included in the Central list of OBC as they don’t form a socio-economic backward class.
• Inclusion of a politically organised class like Jat would adversely impact the welfare of the other backward classes.
• Though the Union Government has powers under the Constitutional scheme to provide reservation to a particular class but it cannot provide reservation on the basis of a decade-old-finding about the backwardness of a caste.

SC gave this decision on Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the OBC Reservation Raksha Samiti which had challenged Union Governments notification of including Jats in the Central list of OBC.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2015