High Court annuls 65% quota in Bihar; state to move Supreme Court

In a setback to the Bihar government led by Nitish Kumar, the Patna High Court on Thursday struck down the Bihar government's decision to raise quotas for Dalits, backward classes and tribals from 50% to 65% taken last year. A division bench, headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran, passed the order on a bunch of petitions which had opposed the legislation brought by the state government in November 2023. The quotas were increased after the state government conducted a caste and socio-economic survey which came up with new estimates of the population of OBCs, SCs and STs in Bihar.

On November 21 last year, the Nitish Kumar government issued gazette notifications for raising the quota for deprived castes from 50% to 65% in state government jobs and educational institutions. Taken together with the quotas for EWS, reserved seats in the state rose to 75% of the total population. The state government had also requested the Centre to place the amended reservation laws in the Constitution's Ninth Schedule so that it cannot be challenged in courts.

"The reservation has been increased in Bihar considering the population of the different caste groups in the state. We are taking legal help on this and soon we will move the Supreme Court," Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, told ET. "We hope that the apex court will do justice to us and the deprived communities of the state."


Earlier, the opposition RJD in Bihar raised a question on the willingness of the government to increase reservation for the OBCs, SCs and STs in the state.

"We increased the reservation for the most backward, Dalits, tribals and backward society. At that time also we had requested the Government of India to put it in Schedule 9... Some people of BJP always want to stop such work by filing PILs and the caste-based census was also stopped in the same way," RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said in a video statement. "We are hurt by this. This work was done very impartially. I don't know why the JDU is silent. If the Bihar government does not go to the Supreme Court, then the RJD will go to the Supreme Court."