SC says no to increase in OBC quota in Orissa

New Delhi, July 27 (UNI) The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the Orissa government against the order of state High Court, nullifying the state government order of increasing reservation for OBCs in the state from 11.25 per cent to 27 per cent in Orissa Civil Services.

A Bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari refused to entertain the petition as the resolution of the state government dated December 8, 1994 violated the apex court judgement in the Mandal Commission case fixing theupper limit for reservation at 50 per cent while the state government resolution took the total reservation much beyond 50 per cent in the state.

The high court in its impugned judgement, dated April 17, had upheld the order of Orissa Administrative Tribunal, Cuttack bench.

The apex court was not impressed by the contention of the state government that situation in the state was peculiar and most of people of the state are out of the mainstream of national life due to extreme poverty. Hence, exception had to be made in case of Orissa by permitting the state to increase the reservation for OBCs to 27 per cent.

Justice N K Das Commission was set up by the government on February 3, 1991 to identify socially and educationally backward sections of Orissa for the purpose of extending the benefit of reservation to them. The commission in its report submitted on June 28, 1993 identified 181 castes for inclusion in theOBC category.

The government order was struck down by the state administrative tribunal while deciding the case of Haripriya Dash and others and the state high court also dismissed the appeal of the state government. Today the petition of the state government met the same fate in apex court as its petition was dismissed by the court at the admission stage affirming that total reservation cannot go beyond 50 per cent.

UNI