Supreme Court Grants No Interim Stay On Patna HC Order Against Bihar Increasing Reservation To 65 Per Cent

The Supreme Court on Monday (29 July) refused to stay the Patna High Court (HC) order against the Bihar government's decision to raise the reservation for backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.

The bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra admitted the Bihar government's plea against Patna HC but refused to grant any interim stay.

On Bihar government's counsel, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan's request for staying the HC order, the apex court mentioned the HC observation that 68 per cent of the civil services already has reserved candidates.

"We will simply grant leave and hear the matter," the bench said scheduling the matter for September. "No interim relief at this stage," the bench added.

The petitioners argued that the law leads to exclusion. Last month, a division bench of Patna HC found it in violation of the equality clause under Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution.

In November 2023, the Nitish Kumar-led government passed amendments for increasing the reservation of Other Backward Classes (OBC), Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

It increased the OBC and EBC quota from 30 per cent to 43 per cent, ST quota from 1 per cent to 2 per cent and SC quota from 16 per cent to 20 per cent based on the caste census that found OBC and EBC comprise 63 per cent population.

The report found 19.7 per cent of Bihar's population belongs to SCs, while STs make up 1.7 per cent and their reservation was increased accordingly. The General Category comprises 15.5 per cent of the population.