The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Bill to provide up to 10 per cent reservation to Jammu and Kashmir’s economically weaker sections in jobs and educational institutions. The Cabinet also approved Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi’s proposal for increasing the number of Supreme Court Judges from 30 to 33. The Cabinet further approved the extension of six months in the term of the five-member commission examining sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Central list.
“The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 would pave the way of extending the benefit of reservation of up to 10 per cent for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in educational institutions and public employment alongside existing reservations”, said Information Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.
The bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament soon as the proposed legislation could not be brought before the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly which has been dissolved. The bill would pave the way for reserving state government jobs to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir who are from economically weaker sections belonging to any religion or caste, the official statement said.
As for the Supreme Court, at present, the sanctioned strength of the apex court is 30, excluding the CJI. Once the bill to increase the number of judges gets parliamentary nod, the number of judges would go up to 33, excluding the CJI. The strength will be 34, including the CJI, Javadekar told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
Due to paucity of judges, the required number of constitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law was not being formed, the CJI said. “You would recall that way back in 1988, about three decades ago, the judge strength of the SC was increased from 18 to 26, and then again after two decades in 2009, it was increased to 31, including the CJI, to expedite disposal of cases to keep pace with the rate of institution,” he wrote.
“I request you to kindly consider, on top priority, to augment the judge strength in the SC appropriately so that it can function more efficiently and effectively as it will go a long way to attain the ultimate goal of rendering timely justice to the litigant public,” Gogoi wrote.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 originally provided for a maximum of 10 judges (excluding the CJI). This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1960, and to 17 in 1977. The working strength of the Supreme Court was, however, restricted to 15 judges by the cabinet (excluding the chief Justice of India) till the end of 1979. But the restriction was withdrawn at the request of the chief justice of India.
The Union Cabinet also approved the setting up of ISRO Technical Liaison Unit (ITLU) at Moscow in Russia.
The unit will enable effective technical coordination for timely interventions on diversified matters with Russia and other neighbouring countries for realisation of the programmatic targets of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), it said.
These apart, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) hiked the subsidy on non-urea fertilisers to make available farm nutrients at affordable prices to farmers, a move that would cost the exchequer Rs 22,875.50 crore in this fiscal.
“The CCEA approves NBS rates for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers for the year 2019-20; expected expenditure during 2019-20 to be Rs 22,875.50 crore,” said Javadekar.