The Allahabad High Court has sought a reply from the UP government on a petition seeking discontinuation of reservation for OBCs in government services on the ground that they have "already reached and surpassed what can be said to be adequate representation."
The order was passed on September 9 by Justice Sudhir Agarwal on the petition filed by Sumit Kumar Shukla and others challenging reservation for OBCs saying it was being extended "in a mechanical way" and a "wholly unconstitutional and illegal manner."
The petitioners had claimed that the representation to various categories of OBCs has crossed the stage of adequate representation, and prayed that "it should be stayed and should not be continued."
They petitioners had 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 sought to show, through statistical figures, that representation of OBCs in public services was quite high way back in 2001 and that "in the last more than a decade, since reservation has continued, the representation percentage must have gone up".
The court fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
It directed the state government to file a counter- affidavit with special emphasis on the criteria or point or level of representation to hold that a class is adequately represented or not.
The state government's response should also include whether any investigation has been done or any committee constituted in last 10 years to find out what is the present status of representation of various castes/classes in state services in which reservation is continuing and "if any Commission report is available and consequential action, if any", it said.
The court ordered that the affidavit "shall be filed by a person not below the rank of Special Secretary, who is authorised by Secretary (Appointment)".
