Madhya Pradesh OBC Reservation Row Deepens As High Court Rejects 27% Quota, Organisations Urge CM Mohan Yadav To Fight In Supreme Court

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Chief Minister Mohan Yadav convened a meeting with representatives of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Mahasabha and other backward class organisations on Friday to discuss the issue of 27% OBC reservation.

During the meeting, representatives demanded that the state government strongly defend the case in the Supreme Court, stressing that merely filing a Special Leave Petition would not be enough.

They urged the government to present solid evidence and effective legal arguments to strengthen its case.

The core committee member of OBC Mahasabha, Lokendra Gurjar, said that discussion was mainly focused on restoration of reservation to 27%. Along with this, deliberation also took place on issues related to the future of 13% hold candidates and what better could be done legally in the case.

OBC Mahasabha placed a six-point demand before the CM, including a survey of OBCs in terms of social, educational and economic status and representation of backward classes in government jobs.

The demand was also made that an ordinance or legal proposal shall be prepared for over 27% reservation so that a solution to the points raised by the court could be ensured.

More importantly, discussion shall be done with the National Backwards Classes Commission before preparing the proposal.

OBC Mahasabha gave the suggestion that to provide relief to candidates affected by 13% hold posts, legal review of previous recruitment process and available vacancies should be done, said Gurjar.

He added that OBC Mahasabha cleared that the government should come up with a clear action plan and take a time-bound decision in the interests of affected OBC candidates.

Notably, the Madhya Pradesh High Court's principal bench at Jabalpur on Friday rejected 27% reservation for Other Backwards Classes (OBC), upholding the existing 14% quota and fixing the overall reservation ceiling at 50% in the state. The ruling came on petitions challenging the quota hike, including those filed by MBBS students and NEET-PG 2019 aspirants.