Asserting that the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) has no jurisdiction to hear petitions relating to reservation issue, senior Congress leader and former MlA Umesh Swain demanded the State Government to submit a review petition before the OAT against its December 19 order.
On December 19 last, the OAT had quashed the Odisha Reservation of Posts and Services (Socially and Educationally Backward Classes) Act, 2008, which had provisions of 27 per cent of posts for candidates belonging to the SEBC in Government services on the plea that the law had not been included in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. The tribunal had disposed of a case against an advertisement where rate of reservation was above 50 per cent ruling that the Act was unsustainable in the eye of law.
Addressing a Press conference here on the issue, the senior Congress leader said that the OAT had only the mandate for quick redressal of grievances of the State Government employees regarding their service matters. Since the issue was relating to reservation, the OAT had no jurisdiction to entertain and hear the petition, he said, adding the State Administrative Tribunal order to keep SEBC reservation at the rate of 11.25 per cent was not acceptable.
Urging Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take steps to submit petition before the OAT to review its order on the 27 per cent reservation for SEBC, Swain sought to know why the rules on the Act had so far not been implemented by the Government and demanded that strong disciplinary action be taken against those responsible for non-implementation of the rules. Defending the Act, Swain said that Karnataka had been implementing a similar law providing reservation in excess of 50 per cent and the law has not yet been included in the 9th schedule of the Constitution.
But the Supreme Court has allowed continuance of the reservation in excess of 50 per cent in SV Joshi Judgment in 1992. The case of Odisha is similar to Karnataka. Even States like Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu have laws providing reservation in excess of 50 per cent, he maintained. Besides, Swain pointed out that while a petition by Rudra Naryan Acharya and Satyajit Das against the 27 per cent reservation for the SEBC was pending disposal before the apex court, the order of the OAT was unconstitutional.
Since the Act is already in force, the State Government should defend the case properly for the interest of the 52 per cent of the SEBC, Swain said.