MP News: High Court Lists Petitions On April 27 Instead Of April 15 On Government Request

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The principal bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur ordered that a batch of petitions pertaining to 27% OBC reservation be listed on April 27 after senior advocate of the Supreme Court and Assistant Solicitor General KM Nataraj expressed his inability to appear on April 15, the date initially fixed for the next hearing.

On Thursday, 33 cases concerning OBC reservation were listed before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf.

Acceding to the request while adopting a firm stance, the Chief Justice ordered that regular hearings would be conducted from April 27 to April 29, commencing at 12.30pm each day.

Besides, the High Court directed that two petitions, filed by Deepak Kumar Patel and Harishankar Barodia challenging the constitutional validity of the 87-13% formula, be remitted back to the Supreme Court.

Acting on the basis of the Advocate General s opinion, the General Administration Department issued directives to the MPPSC on Sep 29, 2022, for adopting the 87-13% formula for conducting the selection process.

These directives mandated the preparation of selection lists for recruitment examinations based on a 13% ratio, spanning from the preliminary stage to the final stage. Appointments were to be granted for 87% of the posts, while the selection of candidates belonging to the OBC category and the general category, both at 13%, was to be kept on hold.

Representing OBC interests on behalf of the State government were special counsels Rameshwar Singh Thakur and Vinayak Prasad Shah.

Appearing for the State government were Assistant Solicitor General KM Nataraj, Advocate General Prashant Singh, and Additional Advocate General Harpreet Ruprah. Varun Thakur appeared on behalf of the petitioners belonging to the OBC category.