SC notice on Chhattisgarh govt plea against HC judgment setting aside 58% quota

New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on an appeal by Chhattisgarh government challenging a Chhattisgarh High Court judgment, which set aside the state government's 2012 decision to raise the quota in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions to 58 per cent.

The state government, in its plea filed through advocate Sumeer Sodhi, said: "In the impugned judgment, the court, without examining the facts and figures supplied by the petitioner and disregarding the judgments of this court, has held that no case for extraordinary circumstances has been made out by the petitioner to breach the ceiling limit of 50 per cent laid down in judgment of Indra Sawhney."

It further added that the high court also refused to accept the additional documents on record whose permission was sought by the state government.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath issued notices to the Guru Ghasidas Sahitya Avam Sanskriti Academy against the September 19 order of the high court, delivered on petitions challenging the state government's decision to amend reservation rules in 2012.

The state government's plea said: "The Petitioners filed its reply and brought the data on record showing the compelling circumstances to enact the impugned act as also to breach the ceiling limit of 50 per cent while granting reservation."

"The impugned order passed by the Hon'ble High Court is erroneous in law.. The whole object and intention of the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 to uplift the status of the Scheduled Tribes in the State of Chhattisgarh without making inroad to the principles of equality contemplated under Article 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India, 1950 is rendered infructuous."

According to the 2012 amendment, the quota for Scheduled Castes (SCs) was slashed by four per cent to 12 per cent, and Scheduled Tribes (STs) reservation was increased by 12 per cent (from 20 per cent to 32 per cent). The reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was kept unchanged at 14 per cent.

Guru Ghasidas Sahitya Avam Sanskriti Academy and other petitioners challenged it in the high court.