The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that Jat candidates, who have applied for admissions and Government jobs under the OBC quota, cannot claim any rights under the scrapped reservation policy. The Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohington F Nariman passed the decision while dealing with an application by seven candidates who applied for post-graduate medical courses under the Jat OBC quota in January 2015 when the quota existed.
Before the counseling took place, the Supreme Court on March 17 declared the quota unconstitutional leaving the Jat candidates in the lurch. Dismissing the application, the Bench said that no “vested right” can be claimed by any of the applicants as any benefits accruing from the reservation policy was made subject to the final outcome in the proceedings before the court.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan who appeared for the medical aspirants claimed that his clients did not appear for All India counseling under a fervent belief to get through under the reserved category. But the original petitioner in the case led by advocate Rakesh Kumar cited the Court’s order in April last year when all decisions by Government was made subject to final order in the batch of writ petitions.
The order is expected to end speculation on several pending decisions on Jat quota beneficiaries. The UPSC had lately put the IAS results on hold and referred the issue of Jat quota beneficiaries to the Department of Personnel for its decision.
The decision to include Jat community as backward class was taken by the UPA Government on March 4 last year, just a day prior to announcement of General Elections. The apex court slammed the Centre for want of any evidence or material to show “social backwardness” of Jats. Moreover, the decision of the Centre was contrary to the opinion rendered by the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) which twice recommended against inclusion of Jats under OBC list.