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The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to Bihar Government and others on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) plea challenging Patna High Court order that set aside the state government's amendments to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, and Scheduled castes in jobs and educational institutions. The Supreme Court tagged the plea with another similar petition.
The matter was listed before the bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and also comprised of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. RJD, among others, challenged the Patna High Court order dated June 20 whereby the High Court set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (in Admission to Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 as being violative of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution of India. "It is respectfully submitted that the impugned final judgement and order has been passed for the reason that the State of Bihar was neither a far flung or remote area nor is it out of the mainstream of national life making an overbreadth of the 50% limit an imperative measure," RJD said in its petition. One of the appeals was also filed by the Bihar government through advocate state's standing counsel, Manish Kumar. Patna High Court in June set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act, 2023, and The Bihar (In admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 as ultra vires and violative of the equality clauses under Articles 14, 15 and 16.The Bihar legislature had in 2023 amended both Acts and increased the reservation from 50 per cent to 65 per cent in jobs and higher educational institutions. Based on the findings of the caste survey in the state, the state government increased the quota for SC to 20 per cent, Scheduled Tribes to two per cent, Extremely Backward Classes to 25 per cent, and Backward Class to 18 per cent. Notably, at that time Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United was part of the Mahagathbandhan, comprising Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress party. (ANI)
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