Jaipur, Sept 15: Rajasthan High Court today issued notices to the central and state governments on a public interest litigation challenging inclusion of Jats in OBC category. A division Bench, comprising Justice S K Keshote and Justice Shashi Kant, also issued notices to the national commission for backward classes and the Rajasthan state Backward Classes Commission on the PIL filed by former IAS officer Satya Narain Singh, who had served as secretary to the state OBC commission
The petition contended that the Jat community had always been considered as a forward class and categorised as such by Mandal Commission and its inclusion in OBC category in 1999, first by the Centre and later by the state, was a hasty step taken without due deliberation.
The inclusion of Jats, who had been socially, educationally and economically forward, illegally in the OBC category had resulted in concentration of benefits of reservation to a single community snatching away benefits from the really needy communities and resulting in reverse discrimination of other classes, the petition contended.
The petitioner demanded that filling of current vacancies in Rajasthan administrative service and state allied services should be stayed and central and state governments should be prohibited from providing reservation benefits to Jat community. Bureau Report