By IANS,
New Delhi: The renewed agitation of the Gujjar community for job quota in Rajasthan entered its second day Tuesday, a day before the Rajasthan High Court is scheduled to hear a petition challenging a law that gives five percent reservation to the community.
The high court Wednesday will also hear a plea against 14 percent reservation to the economically backward classes in the state.
The high court by its interim order of Oct 13, 2009, stayed the operation of a state government notification on reservation for Gujjars, which took the total reservations in government jobs to 68 percent.
The high court said that a total of 68 percent reservation in jobs exceeded the limit of 50 percent fixed by the Supreme Court in 1992.
The state government has preferred not to move the apex court against the high court’s interim order on the grounds that in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh too the prevailing reservation is far in excess of the limit fixed by the apex court.
The apex court Oct 26, 2010, rejected a petition that sought review of its July 13 order which extended its interim order for the continuation of the 69 percent reservation for the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Most Backward Classes (MBCs) for one more year in Tamil Nadu.
The apex court said that if the state government wanted to re-fix reservation quotas exceeding the limit of 50 percent, then it could do so by taking recourse to the parameters laid down by it in the Mandal Commission judgment in 1993.
In the Mandal judgment, the apex court left an opening for exceeding the 50 percent reservation limit under compelling circumstances.