Rajasthan HC dismisses PILs against Rajasthan quota

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan high court on Thursday dismissed two public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the Rajasthan (SC, ST, OBC, SBC and EBC) Reservation Act, 2008.
A division bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and J K Ranka dismissed the petitions as they had become infructuous after the state government repealed the Act last year.
Earlier, the high court had stayed the Act in 2009 and 2013 on the basis of these PILs, which argued the reservation in the state had overshot the Supreme Court’s 50% cap.
Petitioners Mukesh Solanki and Gurvinder Singh had argued there was no constitutional provision to grant reservation on the basis of economic criteria as well.
The Act had created a separate category from non-reserved communities.
In 2015, the government repealed the controversial 2008 legislation and brought the Rajasthan Special Backward Classes (SBC) Reservation Act, 2015, and the Rajasthan Economically Backward Classes (EBC) Act, 2015.
The first provided five percent reservation to the SBC (five castes including Gujjars) and the second allowed 14% reservation for the EBC from the non-reserved communities.
Overall reservation in the state again reached 68% with this. The petitioners have filed fresh petitions against the reservation Acts of 2015. But these are yet to come up before the high court.
Rajasthan Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti spokesman Himmat Singh Gurjar said the state government should take up their case with the Centre and get the SBC reservation Act of 2015 shielded against judicial review by placing it under Constitution’s Schedule IX.