After hearing a plea challenging the amended Revised Reservation Rules, 2005, The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday ruled that the appointment under the amended rules will depend on the outcome of a legal challenge questioning their legality.
The five petitioners claimed the amendments are unconstitutional and go against Supreme Court rulings. They argued that the changes reduce reservations for the Open Merit (OM) category from 57 per cent to 33 per cent and for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, while significantly increasing quotas for Scheduled Tribes (ST), Social Castes (SC), children of Defence and Police personnel, and sports achievers.
The petitioners contend that these changes violate the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) case and the J&K Reservation Act, 2004, which also enforces a 50 per cent limit. They point out that OM candidates make up over 70 per cent of J&K’s population and RBA areas account for 20 per cent, making the reductions in these categories unfair.
They stress that reservation policies must be carefully planned to ensure fairness and protect merit-based opportunities for OM and RBA candidates, who together represent about 83 per cent of J&K’s population.
The petitioners claim the amendments were introduced hastily for political reasons and have requested the court to strike them down. They have also demanded fresh recruitment notifications based on the original 2005 rules and the creation of a commission to design a fair, population-based reservation policy.
Jammu and Kashmir are experiencing an unemployment rate of 32 per cent, the highest in the country. Government jobs are a significant source of employment and are the most sought-after by educated youth.
