The Allahabad High Court has asked the UP government to respond to a petition alleging that "illegal" reservations was being given to OBCs though they have "already surpassed" what can be said to be adequate representation in government services.
The order was passed by Justice Sudhir Agarwal on a petition filed by Sumit Kumar Shukla and others who had "prayed that since the representation in respect to various categories of OBCs has already crossed the stage of adequate representation, it should be stayed and should not be continued".
The petitioners have also alleged that "for reasons other than bona fide", the state has been reluctant "to make an investigation about the extent of representation of various categories in public services to find out whether continuance of reservation to those categories is valid or not," notwithstanding directions to these effect issued in the past by the High Court as well as the Supreme Court.
The petitioners had also sought to show, through statistical figures, that representation of OBCs in public services was quite high way back in 2001 itself and that "in the last more than a decade, since reservation has continued, the representation percentage must have gone up".
The order was passed on September 9 and the court has fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The court directed the UP government to file a counter-affidavit with special emphasis on the points "what is the criteria of representation to hold that a class is adequately represented or not."
The court also asked "whether any investigation has been done or any committee was constituted in last 10 years to find out what is the present status of representation various castes/classes in various state services in which reservation is continuing" and "if any Commission report is available and consequential action, if any".
The court also ordered that the affidavit "shall be filed by a person not below the rank of Special Secretary, who is authorised by Secretary (Appointment)".
