Madhya Pradesh High Court stays Cong govt’s OBC quota hike

Bhopal: In a jolt to Congress ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday stayed the recent decision by the Kamal Nath government to increase the reservation of other backward class (OBC) to 27 per cent in the state, a move seen as an attempt to woo the said community by the ruling party.

Responding to a petition filed by three medicos, Asita Dubey, Richa Pandey and Suman Singh, a division bench of the high court comprising  of Justice R.S. Jha and Justice Sanjay Dwivedy ruled that the admissions in the MBBS courses scheduled to commence on March 25, should be made on the basis of existing reservation quota of 14 percent for OBC, not on the basis of the revised quota of 27 per cent.

The petitioners argued that the Constitution provided that the reservation should not exceed 50 percent under any circumstances.

Madhya Pradesh government has earmarked reservation of 20 per cent for scheduled tribes, 16 per cent for scheduled castes and 14 per cent for OBC.

The reservation will touch 63 per cent mark if the recent decision by the state government to increase the OBC quota

to 27 per cent was enforced.

Chief minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday defended his government’s decision  citing a similar reservation policy in Tamil Nadu.

Congress spokesman announced that the state government would move the Supreme Court to challenge the high court’s directive on the issue.

Opposition BJP however slammed the Congress government for implementing the 27 percent quota for OBC in a hasty manner without working on it properly to harvest electoral gains in the upcoming LS elections.

OBC comprises of around 54 per cent population of Madhya Pradesh.