Khattar hopes Jat Reservation Bill will be vacated soon

Once the stay is vacated, the state government will request the Centre to include the Act in the 9th Schedule: Manohar Lal Khattar

Kurukshetra, Feb 1: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said the issue of quota for the Jat community will be dealt with in a legal manner only and hoped that the stay on the bill granting them reservation will be vacated soon.

"The state enacted a law in consultation with all stakeholders to give reservation to Jats. Now, when the court has stayed it, the matter would have to be dealt with in a legal manner only," he said at an event. The chief minister said his government has tasked a senior advocate with pleading the case in the court.

"Once the stay is vacated, the state government will request the Centre to include the Act in the 9th Schedule," he said. A Bhiwandi resident had last year filed a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the Haryana government's decision to grant reservation to Jats and five other communities in jobs and educational institutions under the newly created Backward Class C category.

The Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions) Act 2016, passed by the assembly on March 29 last year, provides 10 per cent quota in Class III and IV posts and educational institutions and six per cent quota in Class I and II posts to Jats, Jat Sikhs, Rors, Bishnois, Tyagis and Muslim Jats in Schedule-III. In a veiled attack on Yashpal Malik, who is spearheading the ongoing Jat quota stir in the state, Khattar said: "Some leaders from other states were doing politics in Haryana and vitiating the peaceful atmosphere by misguiding people for their vested interests."

Malik, the national president of All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti, belongs to Uttar Pradesh. He today addressed the protesting Jats at Rohtak, Sonipat, Jhajjar and Panipat. He said that of the 2,100 cases registered during the Jat agitation last year, about 1,350 have been withdrawn and hearing is on in the remaining cases.

PTI