Courts may block MP govt plan to reserve govt jobs for locals: Experts

While courts have generally upheld domicile-based reservation in education, none has upheld reservation of public or private jobs based on domicile

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s promise of bringing in a law that would reserve government jobs for locals from the state would be unconstitutional and is almost certain to be struck down in court, lawyers say. Public policy experts say such a policy will deter the creation of a unified labour market in India.

“If he (Chouhan) brings job reservation via an executive order, he can shrug off political responsibility if it goes to court, saying it was a bureaucratic lapse. But prima facie, such a law will violate Article 15 of the constitution, which prohibits discrimination by