J&K reservation policy amendments challenged in HC; hearing tomorrow

The recent amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir reservation policy, which allocate over 60% of government job and education institution quotas to reserved categories, have been challenged in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court will take up the petition for hearing on Monday.

The fresh development comes days after the National Conference government announced to form a sub-committee to look into the matter.

The amendments have drawn criticism for reducing the share of open merit and Resident of Backward Area (RBA) reservations, while increasing quotas for Scheduled Tribes (ST), Social Caste, and new categories such as children of defence and police personnel and sportspersons.

Under the new policy, the open merit share has been reduced from 57% to 33%, while the RBA quota has dropped from 20% to 10%. At the same time, ST reservations have been increased from 10% to 20%. Additionally, new categories of quota have been introduced, which further complicate the framework.

Stating that they are “highly prejudiced by the acts of omission and commission on the part of the respondents,” and “as such have no other option except to approach the High Court for redressal of their grievances,” the petitioners have urged the court to issue directions, commanding the respondents to appoint a commission headed by a retired Judge of High Court with members of each community/ category to recommend and provide the reservation on the basis of population percentage in UT of J&K, so that the reservation policy is framed on rational basis.

It also has demanded to “apply rationality in the reservation to maintain a 50 per cent ceiling for open merit/ general category.”

The UT administration, under Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, had granted 10 per cent reservation to the Pahari community earlier this year, taking the reserved seats for different categories to 60 per cent, leaving only 40 per cent seats for the general category candidates in government jobs. According to the 2011 census, around 69 per cent of Jammu and Kashmir’s population belongs to the general category.

Recently, the National Conference government had referred 575 posts of lecturers for recruitment under the prevailing reservation policy, which also caused an uproar among students and opposition leaders, who sought a revamp of the policy.