Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The state government on Friday filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court (HC) order rejecting 27% reservation for Other Backwards Classes (OBC), upholding 14% OBC reservation and the 50% upper limit on total reservations in the state.
On March 8, 2019, the Kamal Nath-led Congress government had promulgated an ordinance to increase OBC reservation from 14% to 27%. The state Assembly later passed the supporting legislation in July 2019.
Unreserved category students and petitioners like SAPAKS (Samanya, Pichhda Evam Alpsankhyak Varg Adhikari Karmachari Sanstha) had filed over 90 petitions against the August 2019 Amendment Act.
After the SC remanded all the petitions to the HC in March 2026, a division bench of the HC in Jabalpur, comprising Justices Anand Pathak and Vinay Saraf, struck down the 2019 law as unconstitutional on October 9, 2026, ruling that the state had failed to prove "extraordinary conditions or emergent situations" required to breach the Supreme Court's 50% reservation ceiling.
