Plea against Jat quota: High court adjourns hearing for March 2

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday adjourned hearing on petitions challenging 10% quota to Jats and five other communities in the state for Thursday. During the resumed hearing, the state government claimed the representation of Jats in government jobs is 21% against the community’s population of 25% in the state. The government further argued that data supplied by the petitioners related to Jats’ representation can’t be relied upon.

Arguing from petitioners’ side, advocate Mukesh Kumar Verma said that data supplied by them was procured through the RTI and from government websites. He further claimed it had not been disputed by the state. Later, the HC bench posting the matter for March 2 ordered that record of the 2014 petition on the issue in which data was cited by petitioners be attached with the present case. As per petitioners, against the 25% population of Jats, their share in government jobs is between 30% to 62%.

The quota was stayed by the HC on May 26, 2016, on a PIL filed by a Bhiwani resident. The Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admissions in Educational Institutions) Act, 2016, provides for 10% reservation in Class 3 and 4 government jobs and 6% reservation in Class 1 and 2 posts to Jats, Jat Sikhs, Rors, Bishnois, Tyagis, Mulla Jats or Muslim Jats. The quota law was enacted by the government following violent protests by the Jat community in 2016.

ARSON ACCUSED MOVES HC AGAINST CBI PROBE The HC bench of justices SS Saron and Darshan Singh on Tuesday will take up a petition of an accused, in arson at the Rohtak house of finance minister Captain Abhimanyu during the quota stir last year, challenging the Haryana government’s decision to recommend the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The petitioner, Ashvin, who is out on bail, has argued that when challan has already been presented in court by the local police, the CBI probe could not have been recommended.

The matter was listed before the division bench presided over by justice Rajesh Bindal on Monday, which after information from the state that another division bench is seized of the matter transferred it before that bench.