Congress Demands Law To Allow Reservation Over 50 Per Cent, Supports JDU Demand Against Patna High Court Order

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday (30 June) demanded a law to allow the reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) over 50 per cent.

The Congress MP supported BJP ally Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)]'s demand to increase the reservation limit set by the Supreme Court.

He said, "The only way forward is for Parliament to pass a Constitution Amendment Bill that enables reservation for SCs, STs and all backward classes to exceed 50 per cent."

"The current 50 per cent limit is not explicitly mandated by the Constitution but is fixed through various Supreme Court judgments," he said adding that this was one of the main guarantees of Congress.

Earlier this month, the Patna High Court set aside the Bihar government's decision to increase the reservation in the state from the existing 50 per cent to 65 per cent based on the caste census.

Ramesh also demanded that all the state laws dealing with reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs should be included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, as was done for the Tamil Nadu law in 1994.

"However, bringing reservation laws beyond the 50 per cent limit into the Ninth Schedule is not a solution, as such laws are also subject to judicial review, according to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling," he added.

The Rajya Sabha MP demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify his stand on the matter as the BJP is "silent". "We demand that such a bill be introduced in the next session of Parliament," he concluded.