Rajasthan High Court strikes down SBC quota for Gujjars

The Rajasthan High Court has struck down Special Backward Classes reservation given to Gujjars and five other communities of the state.A division bench of justices M N Bhandari and J K Ranka yesterday held that the special reservation beyond the permissible limit of 50 per cent cannot be made and the report of the OBC

Commission of the state was calculated one to favour these communities. It said the court on December 22, 2012 had asked for review of the entire reservation granted and not only a quantifiable



report.

On November 28, 2012, the Rajasthan Cabinet decided to provide a separate five per cent quota to the SBCs without touching the 21 per cent reservation available to Other

Backward Classes and taking the overall reservation in jobs and education to 54 per cent.

The community, currently enjoying OBC status, had initially demanded its inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes and was later persuaded to accept the creation of a new reserved

category for it.