The Telangana government has written to the Supreme Court to lift 50% upper limit in reservation as decided in the landmark judgment of Indira Sawhney vs Union of India in 1992.
The government requested the apex court to leave it to the State legislatures to determine the quantum of reservation depending upon the particular circumstances existing in each State and how they evolved over time.
Sources said the judgement of the court needed a relook by a larger bench to review the cap of 50%. This view of the Supreme Court could not be cast in iron as there were several special circumstances in different States like some of the north eastern States which had more than 50% tribal population or Other Backward Class communities in some other States. Secondly, the social circumstances also changed over time in view of different population growth rates among different communities.
The Constitution did not have any provision related to upper limit on reservations. The 102nd Constitutional amendment resulting in insertion of Article 342 (A) took away the powers of the legislatures to include deserving communities from time to time in the list of OBCs and, thereby, enhance the reservation percentage beyond 50 % as fixed by the Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney judgment.
Earlier, the issue of reservation figured in the Assembly on Friday when Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Mohammed Moazam Khan raised it in the debate on Appropriation Bill.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao replied that fixing reservation was not in the hands of State government.
He said the State government had asked the Centre to allow raising the quota beyond 50% like in the case of Tamil Nadu which enjoyed 69% quota.
“There are some anomalies in the system and we have informed Centre that it is not right to cap the limit at 50%. The Supreme Court is seized of the matter”, he said.
Mr. Rao assured Mr. Khan that the government will ask the Centre to leave reservation to States. It was conveyed to the Centre in the past also.
Four years ago, the Telangana government had passed a Bill hiking the reservation of Muslims from 4 to 12% and Scheduled Tribes from 7 to 10% , taking the overall reservation in the State beyond 50%.
The government had sent the Bill to the Centre with a request to include it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.
