All about Bihar's reservation hike law that Patna HC has struck down

In what could prove a major setback to the government of Bihar, the Patna High Court on Thursday scrapped the state government’s 2023 reservation hike for Dalit, backward classes and tribals in government jobs and educational institutions.

The Government of Bihar hiked the reservation for all backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent last year.

A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order on a bunch of petitions that had opposed the legislation brought by the Nitish Kumar government in November 2023.

Why was the reservation hike scrapped?

The order was struck down by the court which said that it violated the equality clause under Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution.

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The petitioners had challenged the constitutional validity of the amendments made to the existing reservation laws in the state.

Ritika Rani, one of the counsels appearing for the petitioners, said, “We had submitted that the amendments to the reservation laws were violative of the Constitution”.

“After hearing both sides, the court had reserved its judgment in March. Today the final order has come and our petitions have been allowed”, she told PTI.

All about the reservation hike

The Bihar government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on November 10 2023 hiked the caste-based quota by 15 per cent by clearing two bills, a move that was viewed to appease the minority for the Lok Sabha elections.

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The two bills called the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services Amendment Bill and the Bihar Reservation (Admission In Educational Institutions) Amendment Bill were passed unanimously after the government reportedly held a detailed analysis of the state’s landmark caste census.

The survey shed light on the socio-economic condition of the minority in the state and indicated that marginalised classes were worse off than general classes.

By hiking the reservation, Bihar joined a list of other Indian states like Tamil Nadu to increase caste-based quota exceeding the 50 per cent mark.

“The caste survey has provided us with a comprehensive data. We will use it to introduce more measures for the uplift of socially, educationally and economically backward sections of society. I will be glad if the Centre, too, agrees to a caste census and raises reservations across the country,” Nitish Kumar, who was part of the opposition alliance at the time, had said.