Quota hike: Bihar govt keeps fingers crossed despite SC refusing to stay HC order
The HC order triggered another wave of politics on reservation and the NDA government would certainly not like to let it become a weapon for the Opposition.
The Supreme Court’s (SC) refusal to grant an interim stay on the Patna High Court Order, which set aside Bihar reservation laws that increased reservation for Backward Classes, STs, SCs and Extremely Backward Classes from 50% to 65% in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions, has come as a second setback for the Bihar government in just a few weeks.

On June 20, the Patna High Court bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Harish Kumar had set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act, 2023 and The Bihar (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 as ultra vires and violative of equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16.
Later, the Bihar government moved the SC challenging the Patna HC order. The matter was raised in the Bihar legislative assembly by the Opposition, which questioned why the Bihar government was not trying to get the two laws included in the 9th Schedule despite being a ‘double engine at both the Centre and the state’ to prevent court scrutiny.
Chief Minister Nitish Kunar, however, categorically said in the Assembly that it was at his initiative that the caste survey was done and reservations increased, and that the Bihar government was doing everything required to ensure that the benefits reached the targeted population. “The government has immediately gone to the SC and talks with the Centre are also underway,” he said.
Govt keeping fingers crossed
Though the Patna HC set aside the new quota laws, which means the old reservation formula will continue to be applicable in the state, it may delay the ongoing recruitment process for filling thousands of vacancies in different fields as the government wants to wait for the outcome in the Apex court to proceed with the hiked quota.
Bihar’s parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said the HC order would mean continuing with the old reservation formula. “The SC has not given (an) interim stay that we expected, but the government keeps its fingers crossed that ultimately the Apex Court would appreciate Bihar’s endeavour to do social justice for the deprived sections,” he added.
Choudhary, a senior JD-U leader, said that the reservation in Bihar was increased after conducting a caste survey on a large scale for the first time to have authentic data on different castes; the reservation was increased accordingly. “There is a firm basis for increasing reservation in keeping with the provisions laid down in the Constitution,” he added.
The survey – the first in independent India to successfully enumerate all castes — had found that EBC, which comprises 112 castes, and OBC — formed by 30 communities — together comprised 63.13% of the state population. Scheduled Castes form 19.65% and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%. Upper castes were found to be 15.52% of the population.
All the parties in the House were unanimous on this politically sensitive issue and eager to take credit for making it happen due to its enormous potential in Bihar’s caste-driven electoral politics and the overriding importance of numbers. With the HC setting it aside, it has triggered another wave of politics on reservation and the Nitish-led NDA government would certainly not like to let it become a weapon in the hands of the Opposition.
DM Diwakar, former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, said the SC’s final verdict would determine a lot about the way Bihar politics would swing due to the overriding influence of caste and the critical issue of joblessness.
“If the SC upholds the HC order, the demand for a sociology-economic survey with the Census will pick up momentum and echo in Bihar as well as elsewhere during the state polls. It will also affect the social engineering of Nitish Kumar, as the opposition will certainly play it up to derive an advantage. If the verdict upholds the new quota laws, it will give a certain edge to the Nitish government,” Diwakar added.
Recruitment drives
With unemployment emerging as a major issue during the Lok Sabha elections and the Opposition RJD consistently playing it up, the Bihar government has launched a recruitment exercise in different departments to achieve the target of 10-lakh jobs by the time of the 2025 Assembly elections as part of Nitish government’s 7-Resolves programme.
The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has concluded the third phase of the teachers’ recruitment test (TRE) — which was cancelled in March after the
Economic Offence Unit (EOU) established that questions were leaked ahead of the examination — this month for 87,774 vacancies. Following this, the fourth phase is scheduled to fill over one lakh vacancies.
However, due to uncertainty over the new reservation formula, a senior official, who asked not to be named, said the government would wait and watch before announcing the results. The delay in the publication of Phase-3 results would mean further delay in conducting the Phase-4 exams, as the issue would invariably take political overtones.
Besides, there are various other recruitment exams lined up. The government wants to complete the process to appoint 40247 head teachers and over 6000 headmasters. There are also over 1000 vacancies in the agriculture department. The preliminary tests for vice principals in industrial training institutes (ITIs) and horticulture officers are scheduled in the first half of August.
In addition, there are thousands of vacancies in the health department, Panchayats Raj departments, police, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad, urban development department, public health and engineering department and various others.
“The government has to take a call whether it wants to go ahead with the old reservation formula or wait for the new one to be decided by the Apex court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also underlined the urgency before the Apex Court in view of the scheduled exams and interview,” said the government official quoted above.
What the HC observed
The SC will now hear about the Bihar quota issues in September. The HC had set aside the two laws as ultra vires the Constitution while accepting the contention of the petitioners that “merely based on the lack of proportionate representation in government employment and educational institutions, the percentage of reservation was enhanced without any scientific analysis of the caste survey data”.
“What worries us is no such exercise or analysis having been done by the Government or the Legislature in bringing about the Amendment Acts. After the collection of data, there was a frogleap into the amendment enhancing the reservations beyond 50%, which we found was again on proportionate representation in the services of the State and educational institutions, clearly not permissible under Articles 15(4) & 16(4),” the HC bench had observed.
The bench further observed that “it is to break the stranglehold hold of a few at the expense and to the detriment of the many, that reservation to backward classes was envisaged. But merit cannot be completely effaced and sacrificed at the altar of reparations. This was the principle on which the 50% limit was laid down for reservations”.
