New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government is unlikely to bring in legislation to increase reservation beyond 50 per cent ceiling.
According to the sources from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Union government is under the perception that a hike in reservation beyond the 50 per cent cap would become detrimental for people belonging to the general category.
The sources said that according to an internal assessment of the Ministry of Home Affairs, around 81 per cent of seats/jobs are being taken by the candidates belonging to SC/ST and OBC categories as many meritorious candidates belonging to reserved categories are getting adjusted against general category seats.
Significantly, the Supreme Court had also in several judgments noted that if any person belonging to reserved categories is selected on the basis of merits in open competition along with general category candidates, then he will not be adjusted towards reserved category, that is, he shall be deemed to have been adjusted against the unreserved vacancies.
It is to be mentioned here that during the discussion on the Constitutional (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Monsoon session of the Parliament, several political parties had demanded to increase the reservation beyond the 50 per cent ceiling in order to enhance the quota for SEBC/OBCs.
A delegation of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MPs had also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and urged him to consider the proposal to undertake a caste-based Census and to increase the reservation beyond 50 per cent ceiling.
The BJD MPs had urged the Union Home Minister to pass a Central legislation empowering the states “to identify and publish their SEBC/OBC list and to formulate their rational reservation policy by enhancing the percentage of total reservation beyond the existing 50 per cent ceiling.”
The regional party had highlighted that a meagre 11.25 per cent of reservation is meant for SEBC communities in Odisha which does not commensurate with their sizable proportion to the total population for which the basic objective of the reservation policy for SEBC communities is very much defeated.
“It is appropriate time to make provision in the reservation policy to accommodate SEBC communities considering their proportionate share in the total population for all-round inclusive growth of the society,” the BJD had submitted in the memorandum.
Kuldeep Singh, OP
