On June 20, the Patna High Court overturned the Bihar Government’s decision to hike state reservation from 50 per cent to 65 per cent, citing the caste census as the justification.
In November 2023, amendments were passed by the Nitish Kumar-led government to increase the reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC), Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST). However, a division bench of the Patna High Court, led by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Harish Kumar, ruled it to be in violation of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Indian Constitution.
The judgment was delivered in response to a series of writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act 2023 and The Bihar (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act 2023.
The petition cited the ‘Indira Sawhney versus Union of India’ case, in which the Supreme Court fixed 50 percent reservation as the maximum quota ceiling. The quota hike was also discriminatory in nature, the petition said.
The amendment raised the OBC and EBC quota from 30 per cent to 43 per cent, increased the ST quota from 1 per cent to 2 per cent, and the SC quota from 16 per cent to 20 per cent, reflecting the caste census showing OBC and EBC comprising 63 per cent of the population.
The report indicated that 19.7 per cent of Bihar’s population belongs to SCs, with STs accounting for 1.7 per cent, and their reservation was increased accordingly. The General Category constitutes 15.5 per cent of the population.
