Rajasthan HC invalidates 2 PILs challenging Gujjar quota

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday invalidated two public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the Rajasthan Reservation Act, 2008, as these petitions were now defunct after the state government repealed the Act last year. A division bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice J K Ranka passed the judgment.
Earlier, the HC had stayed implementation of the reservation Act in 2009 and 2013 on the basis of these PILs, which argued that total reservation in the state had overshot the 50% cap set by the SC.
Petitioners Mukesh Solanki and Captain Gurvinder Singh challenged the constitutional validity of the 2008 Act on the ground that reservation in jobs and educational institutes above 50% was in violation with the apex court's guidelines set in the Indira Sawhney case. Besides, they argued that there was no constitutional provision to grant reservation on the basis of economic criteria, as was being done by way of the 2008 Act that created a separate category from among the non-reserved communities.
In 2015, the state government repealed the controversial 2008 Act and brought in two new Acts, namely the Rajasthan Special Backward Classes (SBC) Reservation Act, 2015, and the Rajasthan Economically Backward Classes (EBC) Act, 2015. The first Act provided 5% reservation to the SBC (five castes, including Gujjars) and the second Act allowed 14% reservation to the EBC from the non-reserved communities. Overall reservation in the state again reached 68%, albeit through separate legislations. The petitioners, therefore, filed fresh petitions against the reservation Acts of 2015, too, but these are yet to come up before the high court.
The Rajasthan Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, nonetheless, has welcomed the development. "We thank chief minister Vasundhara Raje for getting the Act of 2008 repealed through strong presentation of the case in the high court," said Himmat Singh Gurjar, the Samiti's spokesperson. Gurjar added, "But there is danger against the new reservation Act also. So the CM should take up our case with the Central government and get the SBC reservation Act of 2015 shielded against judicial review by placing it under Constitution's Schedule IX at the earliest."