Telangana supports lifting 50 per cent upper cap on reservations

Hyderabad: The state government supports the lifting of a 50 per cent upper cap on reservations in education and employment set by the Supreme Court in 1992, said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.

The government has informed the Supreme Court to this effect when the court sought views of all states recently, he said. The policy of the TS government is that the issue of reservations should be left to the states.
Deccan Chronicle had reported on March 16 that the government was in favour of the limit being increased.

Favouring a larger bench to review the judgment, the government affidavit said: “This view of the Supreme Court can’t be cast in iron as there are special circumstances in different states, like some of the northeastern states have more than 50 per cent tribal population or OBC communities in some other states. Secondly, social circumstances change over time in view of different population growth rates among communities."

The government noted that the Constitution doesn't have any provision related to the upper limit on reservations. The 102nd Constitutional amendment, resulting in insertion of Article 342(A), took away the powers of state legislatures to include deserving communities in the list of OBCs and enhance the reservation percentage which can go beyond cap fixed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney judgment.

“Therefore, the Telangana state government demands/ requests the Supreme Court to lift the 50% upper limit imposed in Indira Sawhney judgment and leave to the State Legislatures to determine the quantum of reservations depending upon the particular circumstances existing in each of the States and also how it evolves over time,“ the government contended.

The TS government has already passed the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Bill, 2017 increasing reservations for Muslims under the BC-E category to 12 per cent from the existing four and STs to 10 per cent from six, taking the quota to 62 per cent.

But these increased reservations could not be implemented as the Centre had kept the legislation pending.