SC quashes Centre's decision to include Jats in OBC quota

The SC on Tuesday struck down a 2014 decision by the then Congress govt to include the Jat community on the central list of OBCs. The court insisted on an overhaul of existing reservation policies that it said allow advanced sections to enter the list while keeping out the more distressed, such as transgenders.

Jats are a major political force in at least nine states — Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, MP, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat — and have produced at least one Prime Minister in Charan Singh and several chief ministers. Their inclusion on the OBC list entitled Jats to 27.5% quota in jobs and admissions in educational institutions in nine states. They were included on the list following demands by the community that said other better off castes were on the list.

An SC bench, comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman, rejected these as valid grounds to justify their inclusion, saying they could not have regressed on all parameters while the nation advanced. The community would continue to get such quotas in states in which it figures on the OBC list unless that is now also challenged and set aside. “…possible wrong inclusions cannot be the basis for further inclusions but the gates would be opened only to permit entry of the most distressed. Any other inclusion would be a serious abdication of the constitutional duty of the state.”