The Supreme Court of the country on Thursday gave a historic decision regarding the reservation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court overturned the 2004 decision in the EV Chinnaiya case, giving the states the right to create quotas within the quota in SAC-ST reservation. Now the state governments of the country will be able to easily decide on the classification of reservation to be given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Even though the Supreme Court has given its verdict on SC-ST reservation, it has set the political stage for backward versus extremely backward in Uttar Pradesh.
A seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud held that the classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes does not violate the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has held that there is no provision in Articles 15 and 16, which prevents the States from classifying castes for reservation. The Supreme Court has said that for sub-classification of any caste, the state government has to show from the data that the representation of that class is not sufficient. The state cannot act arbitrarily in this matter or do so for political gain.
Way open for allotment of OBC reservation
Although the Supreme Court has given the right to create quotas within quotas in terms of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it has also opened the way for the bifurcation of OBC reservations in Uttar Pradesh. There has been a long-standing demand to make OBC reservation a quota within the quota in Uttar Pradesh. Two allies of the BJP – Subhasp chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad – have long been demanding bifurcation of OBC reservations. He has presented his thoughts on this from the Yogi government to the Modi government of the Centre.
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Rajbhar welcomed this decision
Subhashpa President Om Prakash Rajbhar has welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the right to reservation in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes quotas. He said that there should be such a system for the backward classes as well so that even the most backward castes can get the benefit of reservation. Rajbhar said he is in touch with top BJP leaders on the OBC reservation issue along with Anupriya Patel, Jayant Chaudhary and Sanjay Nishad. He demanded that OBC reservation should be implemented in the quota based on the recommendations of the Rohini Commission.
Sharing of 27 per cent reservation given to the OBC community after the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations has been a long-standing demand. The current central government also constituted the Rohini Commission to find a sub-category in the OBC category. The commission has submitted its report to the President, but it has not been made public yet. The Most Backward Castes of the OBC community have long been demanding the implementation of the Rohini Commission’s recommendations.
Recommendations of the Commission constituted on reservation
The Rohini Commission was formed to create sub-categories in OBC reservation at the national level, while two commissions – the Hukum Singh Commission and the Raghavendra Singh Commission – were formed in Uttar Pradesh. The Hukum Singh Commission was formed 22 years ago in the Rajnath Singh government to divide the reservation quota into 21 percent for SC-ST and 27 percent for OBC. The committee constituted on June 28, 2001 submitted a report to the government in 2002, which was shelved.
The Hukum Singh Commission had suggested bifurcating the 21 percent reservation given to SC-STs. So, after analyzing one million government posts of UP, the committee said that some castes did not get reservation even to 10 percent of their population, while some castes got more jobs than their population. This is why the 21 percent Dalit and 27 percent OBC reservation in UP should be divided into parts.
For SC reservation, he said that the Jatav-Dhusia and their sub-castes should be kept in one category and the remaining scheduled castes should be given a separate quota. For this, the Social Justice Committee headed by Hukum Singh recommended dividing it into 10 and 11 percent. Similarly, division of OBCs into Backward and Very Backward was recommended, but could not be implemented due to political compulsions.
Commission constituted under the chairmanship of Raghavendra Singh
When the BJP returned to power in UP in 2017, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath formed a commission headed by Raghavendra Singh for the sub-category of OBC reservation. The Raghavendra Singh Commission was constituted in 2018, which submitted its report in 2019. Raghavendra Singh’s Social Justice Committee in its report recommended dividing the 27 percent OBC reservation into three parts. This was in the form of backward class, extremely backward and most backward. A percentage of reservation was also fixed for this.
It was recommended to keep the lowest castes in the backward classes, which included rich castes like Yadavs and Kurmis. The most backward are those castes who are cultivators or artisans and the most backward are those who are completely landless, non-artisans and unskilled labourers. The total 27 percent quota reserved for OBCs includes backward castes such as Yadavs, Ahirs, Jats, Kurmis, Sonars and Chaurasias. 7 percent reservation has been recommended for them. Among extremely backward classes, 11 per cent reservation was recommended for 65 castes including Giri, Gurjar, Gosain, Lodh, Kushwaha, Kumhar, Mali, Lohar and 9 per cent for 95 castes such as Mallah, Kewat, Nishad, Rai, Gaddi, Ghosi. Rajbhar is
Supreme Court directives are very important
The directions given by the Supreme Court in SC-ST cases in the case of Rohini Commission and UP Raghavendra Singh Commission are very important, as the court has now said that the states have the power to decide on sub-categorization. Inadequate representation may provide reservations. This decision will be exemplary in the coming days. Now the state governments will take serious steps to make the SC-ST category a sub-category, but with this, Omprakash Rajbhar has started efforts to intensify his movement in UP.
UP politics will heat up
Politics in Uttar Pradesh is sure to heat up after the Supreme Court’s quota decision. There are 66 castes in SC-ST in UP, benefit of reservation in government jobs is limited to 3 to 4 castes. Similarly, the reservation given to 27 per cent OBCs in UP states that only a few castes have benefited from the reservation and many extremely backward castes have been left behind. That is why there is sure to be a demand for segregation of quota among backward castes in UP. Subhasap and Nishad Party are demanding a separate quota for the Most Backward Castes out of the 27 percent reservation given to OBCs.
There is a demand for caste census
27 percent reservation for OBCs was fixed after the implementation of Mandal Commission. Among the backward castes accused of not getting the benefit of 27 percent OBC reservation are Kurmis, Yadavs, Mauryas, Jats, Gurjars, Lodhas, Malis. At the same time, there are hundreds of tribes like Mallah, Nishad, Kewat, Bind, Kahar, Kashyap, Dhimar, Raikwar, Turaiha, Batham, Bhar, Rajbhar, Manjhi, Dhivar, Prajapati, Kumhar, Machuwa, Banjara, Ghosi, Nonia. , who were not given OBC reservation could not benefit like Yadav and Kurmi. However, this issue has come up at a time when there is a debate about caste census in the country. In such a situation, the government will proceed with great caution in any issue related to reservation or caste.
