Parties claim justice, want quota cap upped

SC had capped reservation at 50% leaving politicians upset

Will the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government succumb to pressure from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to amend the Constitution to give power to the state governments to provide reservations to Backward Class communities in their state?

The AP and Telangana governments want the Centre to amend Article 16 (clause 4) of the Constitution which deals with reservations for Backward Classes.

The AP government wants to amend this section to give reservation to the Kapu community while the Telangana government wants the amendment to give further reservation to the Scheduled Tribes and the Muslim community.

The Supreme Court of India, in the Indira Sawhney case, ruled that reservation shall not exceed 50 per cent.

As per the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Indira Sawhney case, reservations contemplated in Clause (4) of Article 16 of the Constitution cannot exceed 50 per cent. Seetharam Naik, Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP claims that the Supreme Court also ruled that reservation can be provided based on the basis of population.

The leaders of the ruling parties in both states claim that reservation based on population will bring the unequals on par with equals in the area of education and public employment.

The TS Assembly on April 16, 2017, in a special session, passed a Bill to give 12 per cent quota in educational institutions and government jobs for socially and economically backward Muslims.

In December 2017, the AP Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the Kapu Reservation Bill to provide five per cent quota in education and employment to Kapus. This will push up the overall reservation quota to 55 per cent, which is above the 50 per cent cap mandated by the Supreme Court.

Both state governments have sent their bills to the Union government so that Parliament can validate the extended quota through Article 31 (B) of the Constitution, including it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

TRS MPs Jitender Reddy and Vinod Kumar have said that several states across the country are dissatisfied with the cap on reservations. They said even BJP ruled states such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra, and others such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, have passed Bills to give reservation to certain Backward Classes in their states beyond the cap of 50 per cent. These bills are also lying with the Centre.

Both state governments have sent their Bills to the Union government so that Parliament can validate the extended quota through Article 31 (B) of the Constitution, including it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.