Patna; News Agency: The Patna High Court on Thursday quashed the Bihar government's decision to increase the reservation limit from 50 per cent to 65 per cent as a violation of Article 16 (1) and Article 15 (1) of the Constitution. The Bihar government had decided to increase the reservation limit in educational institutions and government jobs in the state from 50 percent to 65 percent. It was challenged in the High Court. Patna High Court Chief Justice K. V. A bench headed by Chandran had reserved its decision after completing hearing on March 11 on the pleas of Gaurav Kumar and others. The petitioners had argued that reservation should be based on their social and educational backwardness over the population belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes.
Total reservation quota 75 percent
After the caste-wise census report in Bihar was made public, the government had increased the scope of reservation for OBCs, EBCs, Dalits and Adivasis to 65 percent. This increased the quota to 75 per cent by including 10 per cent reservation for economically backward upper castes in government jobs and higher educational institutions in Bihar. The reservation was extended on the basis of the caste census report released in October 2023. The Bihar government released the caste-wise census report on October 2. Accordingly, 27.12 percent of the population is backward class and 36 percent of the population is extremely backward class.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced in the Legislative Assembly on 7 November 2023 that his government would expand the scope of reservation in Bihar. It will be increased from 50 percent to 65 or more. After that, the new reservation bill was challenged in the Patna High Court. The Chief Justice's bench had asked the state government to reply by January 12. Also, the bench had rejected the Bihar government's demand to stay the petition.
