The Allahabad High Court has directed the Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh to remove Jats from among the Other Backward Classes list in the State within eight weeks in keeping with a Supreme Court judgment holding that the community cannot be considered as OBC.
The decision came from a bench of Justices Arun Tandon and Vipin Sinha while dealing with a petition filed by one Rajbeer and other members of the Ahir community who are listed as OBCs in the State list.
Through their lawyers Raj K Yadav and Rajeev Trivedi, the petitioners argued that the State cannot continue providing reservation for Jats in State Public Services under a notification issued on March 10, 2000.
According to them, this decision (granting reservation to the Jats) violated the SC judgment of March 17, 2015 in Ram Singh versus Union of India by which the apex court struck down the Centre’s notification for clubbing Jats as OBCs as they failed to show any indicator of social or educational backwardness.
The HC bench took note of the submissions and said, “We dispose the writ petition by requiring respondent 1 (UP Government) to consider the grievance of the petitioner in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court strictly in accordance with law preferably within a period of eight weeks.”
Considering the fact that Jats constitute 3.6 per cent of the State’s population, taking a decision to strike them off from reservation benefits will prove costly to the Samajwadi Party Government which is bracing for polls in the State in 2017. Jats hold considerable sway in decision making as is evident from the report of the Social Justice Committee prepared in year 2001 showing that 92 per cent Jat households are landowners and 89 per cent of Jats in rural areas are employed in primary sector jobs.
The fact that UP Government did not conduct any socio-economic survey of backwardness before extending reservation to Jats was even noted by apex court in its landmark verdict. Besides, the National Commission for Backward Classes too had shot down the proposals for inclusion of Jats under the OBC category on February 26, 2014 that was held to be binding on States by the apex court.
