The Supreme Court judgement taking away reservation benefits meant for Jats under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category will not be applicable to bank employees who got appointed as probationary officers or commenced training under the reserved category before the verdict was delivered.
A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton Nariman modified its March 17, 2015, judgement quashing the Centre’s notification to include Jats in the Central OBC list for reservation in jobs and higher education. The order came on bank officers’ petition requesting a modification. They were made to leave after the verdict, the officers told the court.
The 2015 judgement was retrospective in nature but the court used its special powers under the constitution to give officers the relief. The bench, however, refused reprieve to another batch of officers who had commenced training after the judgement was pronounced.
“..we are of the view that the rights vested in the first category of applicants, that is those appointed as probationary officers would be entitled to have the benefit of such appointments,” the bench said.
“The applicants in the second category would be entitled to complete their diploma or training course and on successful completion would be entitled for consideration of their appointments.”
{{/usCountry}}“The applicants in the second category would be entitled to complete their diploma or training course and on successful completion would be entitled for consideration of their appointments.”
{{/usCountry}}The 2015 verdict held Jats were ineligible to get reservation benefits under the OBC. It noted despite communities progressing with time, the number of categories in the OBC list was increasing. The court later dismissed review petitions filed by the Centre and several individual persons.
Defending its March 2014 notification extending reservation benefit to the Jats, the Centre’s review petition stated the top court erred in holding the government was bound to follow National Commission for Backward Castes’ (NCBC) advice not extending the benefit to the community.
NCBC, the government’s review petition said, never carried an exercise on its own but had relied upon the data collected by the ICSSR. It even criticised the NCBC for sitting over the government’s request to carry out a survey on the Jats and delaying the entire process.
The review petition said the government had followed SC’s Mandal Commission judgment in arriving at the decision.