The Centre is expected to ask the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) to conduct a survey to provide legal backing to the reservation to the Jat community in Central Government jobs and educational institutions. The Supreme Court last week struck down the Jat quota on the ground that the UPA Government introduced it in May 2014 without the mandatory recommendation of the NCBC that decides which castes could be included in the category of the Other Backward Castes (OBC) based on their social and educational backwardness.
Realising that in the absence of NCBC recommendation, a review petition will be fruitless, a panel of senior Ministers’ headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has decided to first plug the legal loopholes providing legitimacy to the Jat reservation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up the panel on March 26 after meeting the delegation of Jat community. Modi promised to the 70-member Jat delegation that the Government will “try to find a solution to the issue within the legal framework”. According to highly-placed sources, the panel zeroed in on two options. The first option was to approach the apex court with a Review Petition. The second option was to ask the NCBC to come out with a new survey. However, during legal consultation the panel realised that in the absence of
NCBC recommendation, the SC was bound to reject the review petition. The new survey based on the outcome of Census 2011 may also open the possibilities of including other deserving communities in the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh region in the OBC category, said sources. As per the norms, only NCBC is the authorised body for suggesting a community for inclusion of OBC quota. In the past, the Commission had rejected reservation for Jat communities.
Meanwhile, students from Jat community who had applied for postgraduate medical and dental courses have approached the Supreme Court for permission to attend counselling for admission under the reserved category seats despite the Jat OBC quota being struck down by the apex court. The application by seven Jat candidates listed on Tuesday submitted that they did not wish to challenge the apex court verdict on merits but sought a concession to participate in the ongoing counseling under the reserved category seats. The applicants took part in the examination held in January this year as OBC candidates.
This is the first occasion since the judgement was passed on March 17 when the Centre will make its stand clear on whether it intends a review of the Court decision. Significantly, the Centre has to make its position clear after the UPSC decided to postpone results till the Department of Personnel is to take a call on extending reservation benefits to Jats. The applicants took the post graduate medical and dental courses on January 24 this year and some even appeared for the counseling held for general category candidates. Counselling for OBC category students took place on March 28 and 29.