PIL plea filed in Patna High Court challenging quota hike

A PIL petition has been filed in the Patna High Court challenging the decision of the Bihar government to increase reservation in the State from 50% to 65%. 

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Patna High Court on Monday challenging the decision of the Bihar government to increase reservation in the State from 50% to 65%. 

Following the caste-based survey report, the government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had taken the decision to increase the reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The PIL plea has been filed by Gaurav Kumar and Naman Shrestha.

The Bihar Assembly on November 9 unanimously passed a Bill to increase reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes from the existing 50% to 65%.

Together with the 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota, the Bill has pushed reservation in Bihar to 75%, well past the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court.

According to the legislation, named the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill, quota for Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) has been raised from the existing 18% to 25%; for Backward Classes (BC) from 12% to 18%; for Scheduled Castes (SC) from 16% to 20%; and for Scheduled Tribes (ST), the quota has been doubled, from 1% to 2%. The existing 3% reservation for BC women has been scrapped.

During the discussion on the reservation Bill, Mr. Kumar had explained to the Assembly the reason behind increasing the quota. 

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar approved the Bills on November 18, 2023 followed by the State government issuing its notification in the gazette on November 21, 2023.