The Rajasthan High Court today struck down Special Backward Classes reservation given to Gujjars and five other communities of the state.
A division bench of justices M N Bhandari and J K Ranka held that the special reservation beyond the permissible limit of 50 per cent cannot be made and the report of the OBC Commission of the state was calculated one to favour these communities while the court on December 22, 2012 had asked for review of the entire reservation granted and not only a quantifiable report.
On November 28, 2012, the Rajasthan Cabinet decided to provide a separate five per cent quota to the SBCs without touching the 21 per cent reservation available to Other Backward Classes and taking the overall reservation in jobs and education to 54 per cent. This had left Gujjars dissatisfied as it was susceptible to judicial rejection since its inception.
Earlier too, an attempt was made to enhance five per cent of reservation over and above the prescribed limit in 2008 which was not permitted by high court. Then in 2009 and 2010, the high court had asked the OBC commission of the state to revisit the concession made by state government and after the study and recommendation of OBC Commission again, the Gujjars and five other communities were given 5 per cent extra reservation in 2012 that has been struck down.
The State has witnessed violence several times since 2007 during the Gujjar agitation, when the community members blocked national highways and railway tracks and were fired upon by the police.
The community, currently enjoying OBC status, had initially demanded its inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes and was later persuaded to accept the creation of a new reserved category for it.
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