New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh high court has invalidated the state’s 2019 legislation raising reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 14% to 27%, ruling that the government had not justified the increase under the constitutional framework governing quotas and directing the appointment of candidates to 13% of government posts that had remained on hold during the litigation.In its judgment on Friday (October 9), a division bench of Justices Anand Pathak and Vinay Saraf held that the state had failed to establish grounds for exceeding the 50% ceiling on reservations laid down by the Supreme Court. The ruling restores OBC reservation in public services and higher education to 14%, overturning a measure introduced by the then Congress government led by Kamal Nath.The court’s decision followed years of challenges to the amendment, which was preceded by an ordinance in March 2019. The bench examined whether the state had established a sufficient basis for increasing the quota, rather than whether OBCs were entitled to reservation in the first place.“This case is not about grant of reservation but extent of reservation,” the court said, according to The Hindu. Referring to the Supreme Court’s rulings in the Indra Sawhney and Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil cases, it held that the state had not demonstrated the exceptional circumstances needed to justify the increase.The judgment also questioned the process through which the legislation was prepared. The bench found deficiencies in the state’s justification for the higher quota and rejected its reliance on a 1983 Mahajan Committee report and a 2023 study by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University of Social Science, as per Hindustan Times.The court cited data that OBCs accounted for 33.87% of higher education enrolment and 28.16% of government jobs, compared with their existing 14% reservation. The bench also considered their representation in open competition, beyond seats filled through the reserved quota.The ruling settles a prolonged dispute that had complicated recruitment across the state. In September 2022, with the litigation unresolved, the government adopted an arrangement allowing recruitment to proceed for 87% of vacancies while keeping the remaining 13% pending. Separate lists of OBC and unreserved candidates were maintained for those posts until the court settled the legality of the enhanced quota.The bench has now directed the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, the Employees Selection Board and other recruitment agencies to fill the withheld vacancies from the unreserved-category lists within three months. According to NDTV, the court has protected appointments made under the enhanced quota between March 2019 and September 29, 2022, while ruling against appointments made after the cut-off under the additional quota beyond 14 percent.Although the increase was enacted under Kamal Nath in 2019, the legal challenge persisted after his government fell in March 2020. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments that followed also supported the demand for 27% reservation, making the verdict a setback for a policy that both parties had publicly backed.The verdict drew criticism from the Congress and the OBC Mahasabha, both of which said they would pursue the fight for 27% reservation in the Supreme Court.Lokendra Gurjar, a member of the OBC Mahasabha’s national core committee and one of the petitioners in the case, told Amar Ujala that the organisation would continue its legal challenge and launch a statewide agitation to secure the community’s rights. He said OBCs could not be left relying on political assurances and that the organisation would pursue both legal and democratic means to press its demand.MP Congress president Jitu Patwari accused the BJP government led by chief minister Mohan Yadav of working against OBC interests and said the party would challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court, India Today reported. Former chief minister Kamal Nath also attacked the BJP, alleging that successive BJP governments had failed to secure the implementation of the enhanced quota. He accused the state government of presenting a weak case before the court, according to NDTV.Chief minister Mohan Yadav blamed the Congress government led by Kamal Nath for the court striking down the enhanced quota, saying the 2019 ordinance had been introduced hastily and without consulting the National Commission for Backward Classes.He said the court’s ruling had exposed weaknesses in the legislation and raised questions about the Congress government’s intentions in introducing the 27% reservation, Amar Ujala reported. Yadav said his government would examine the judgment legally before deciding on further action. BJP state president Hemant Khandelwal also blamed the Congress for failing to prepare the legislation adequately, while reiterating the BJP’s commitment to 27 percent OBC reservation, India Today reported.