Patna HC rejects petition challenging 50 per cent reservation in
government contracts
Patna,(BiharTimes): A bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Sudhir Singh of Patna High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition challenging the decision of the Bihar government to provide 50 per cent reservation to Backward Classes (BCs), Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in all government contracts worth up to Rs 15 lakh.
The bench ruled that the resolution of the state government does not suffer from the vice of arbitrariness and unreasonableness, and also does not violate Article 14 and 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
While rejecting the plea of petitioner, Sapna Singh, the bench said the state should take care that the creamy layer in these categories do not get benefits and it is confined only to those who were the real claimants.
It was in 2015, that is some months before the Assembly election that chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced 50 per cent quota for these categories.
It was decided that people belonging to Scheduled Castes would get 16%, Scheduled Tribes 1%, Extremely Backward Classes 18%, Backward Classes 12% and Backward Class women 3% in the 50% quota in contracts while the remaining 50% of work is made available to all categories.
The petitioner challenged the state government’s move on the ground that it violated Article 14, Article 19(1)(g) and Article 38 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner’s counsel Dinu Kumar told the court that the government resolutions were arbitrary, unreasonable and discriminatory. However, principal additional advocate general Lalit Kishore, represented the Bihar government.
