SC refuses to stay Patna High Court order striking down Bihar law raising caste-based quotas to 65%

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Patna High Court’s order striking down amendments made by the state legislature to increase caste-based reservations in education and government jobs from 50% to 65%, Live Law reported.

The bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, agreed to admit the appeal filed by the Bihar government against the High Court order.

During the hearing, senior Advocate Shyam Divan, representing the Bihar government, sought a stay on the High Court’s judgement, citing a previous interim order by the Supreme Court against a similar legislation passed by Chhattisgarh.

However, the bench refused to stay the order and scheduled the matter for hearing in September.

On June 20, the Patna High Court struck down amendments made by the Bihar legislature in November to increase caste-based reservations in education and government jobs in the state.

In November, the Bihar legislature passed a bill to raise the quota slabs. The bill aimed to increase the reservations for Scheduled Castes to 20%, up from 16%. The quota for Scheduled Tribes was to be doubled from 1% to 2%.

It also raised the reservations for the Other Backward Classes to 15% from 12% and for the Extremely Backward Classes to 25% from 18%. Combined with another 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections, the total quota limit in the state would have increased to 75%.

While striking down the bill, the Patna High Court said it was “infringing upon the right to equality”.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the bill.

Rakesh Kumar, one of the petitioners, had argued that it was not prudent on the part of the Bihar government to raise the quota limit when the Supreme Court had quashed similar decisions in the past.

The Supreme Court had in 1992 put in place a 50% limit on caste-based reservations.

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