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Apex court to scrutinise Jat quota
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

Seeks files of Cabinet decision The SC bench has directed the Centre to produce the files relating to the March 3 Cabinet decision The bench said it would ask Attorney General or Solicitor General to assist the court It wanted to see whether there was “application of mind” by the government while taking the decision The bench asked the government to file its response by April 9

New Delhi, April 1
The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to produce the files relating to the March 3, 2014 Cabinet decision for including the Jat community in the Central list of other backward classes (OBCs) for the purpose of 27 per cent quota for OBCs in jobs and educational institutions.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam also issued notice to the Centre seeking its response to two PILs pleading for quashing the March 4, 2014 gazette notification to implement the Cabinet decision, just a day ahead of the announcement of the 16th Lok Sabha election on March 5.

As the PIL petitioners, OBC Reservation Raksha Samiti and three others, sought an immediate stay on the notification, the bench asked the government to file its response by April 9 when the case would be taken up again for hearing. Unless stay was granted, irreversible damage would be caused to deserving OBC students who were seeking admission in schools and colleges for the 2014-15 academic session the process for which was already on, senior advocate KK Venugopal contended while arguing for the samiti.

Pointing out the hurry with which the Cabinet meeting was held and the notification was issued prior to the poll announcement to prevent the model of code of conduct coming in the government way, Venugopal said this amounted to “vote bank politics and purchase of Jat votes which is as bad as bribery.”

Acknowledging the seriousness of the issue, the bench said it would ask Attorney General GE Vahanvati or Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran to assist the court. Explaining the reason for asking for the relevant files, the bench, which included Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana, said it wanted to see whether there was “application of mind” by the government while taking the decision.

Senior advocates Aryaman Sundaram and Mahabir Singh appeared for Jat associations opposing the PILs and pleaded that the court should not pass any order without hearing them. The court agreed to hear them on April 9, though the petitioners have named only the Centre as respondent.

Under the notification, the Jat community in nine states -- Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and two districts (Bharatpur and Dholpur) of Rajasthan - has been added to the Central list of OBCs.

The samiti said the Cabinet had taken illegal and arbitrary decision, rejecting repeated recommendations of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) against treating Jats as OBCs. The NCBC’s recommendations were “normally binding” on the government and could be rejected only after giving valid reasons, but the notification was silent on this aspect, the petitioners said.

Further, under the 1991 SC verdict on the Mandal Commission recommendations, creamy layers among OBCs were not entitled to quota and the Jat community could in no way be treated as deserving of reservation, they contended.