Khyatian, OBC reservation bills insulated from judicial scrutiny: Jharkhand govt
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which supported the bill in the house, charged that the decision is a mere spectacle on part of the state government as the two bills won’t stand legal scrutiny
The ‘1932 Khatiyan’ and ‘OBC reservation’ bills passed by the state assembly are insulated from any judicial scrutiny once they are included in the ninth schedule of the constitution, the Jharkhand government said on on Friday in the assembly.
Chief minister Hemant Soren’s government in November this year cleared two bills, one fixing ‘land records of 1932 as the basis for a domicile in the state’ and another to ‘increase reservation in state government jobs across categories to 77%’.
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The bill aims at the state’s domicile and employment policy reserving all class III & IV state government jobs for Khatiyan-holders. Both bills would become effective only after they are included in the ninth schedule of the Constitution.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which supported the bill in the house, charged that the decision is a mere spectacle on part of the state government as the two bills won’t stand legal scrutiny.
On Wednesday, a BJP legislator during the ongoing winter session in the assembly raised the issue saying he had information that the law department too had red-flagged the two bills.
Responding to the issue raised by the legislator, on the last day of the assembly session, state parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam said the two bills are insulated from any judicial scrutiny and have been sent to the governor for approval after allaying all concerns of the law department.
“During its review, the law department underlined that the Parliament was competent to make such laws regarding public employment citing the Supreme Court’s judgments vis-a-vis the definition of equality of opportunity as enshrined in Article 16,” said Alam.
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“I would like to underline that these two bills would become effective only after they are included in the ninth schedule. And for that the centre would have to get it cleared from the Parliament,” he added.
The minister added that although all laws included in the ninth schedule after 1973 could also be reviewed by the Supreme Court, it is done only when any law violates the basic structure of the constitution and articles such as 14,19 and 21. However, these two laws are related to Article 16. “There are 284 laws in the ninth schedule and they have protection from judicial scrutiny,” he said.
The assertion was however rejected by the BJP legislators as they entered into the well of the House seeking a discussion over the matter. Their demand was rejected by the speaker.
Speaking outside the House, BJP legislator Amit Mandal said, the two bills would be scrapped by the apex court as was done by the Jharkhand high court in the case of the state government’s employment policy of 2021.
“They cite the example of Tamil Nadu regarding the OBC reservation. However, they haven’t followed the procedure like the southern state. Ideally, the house should have adopted a resolution and gotten the nod of the centre,” Mandal said.