CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Friday kept in abeyance till March next year the implementation of a Haryana law providing reservation to Jats and five other communities. It also directed the State Backward Classes Commission to determine the quota in government jobs and education institutions to be given to these communities after examining relevant data and submit a report by March 2018. “The reservation granted under Schedule 3 shall remain in abeyance till then (March 2018) and the stay on it will remain,” Haryana’s additional advocate general Lokesh Sinhal said.
A bench of justices Surinder Singh Saron and Lisa Gill ordered the state government to constitute a commission to fix the percentage of reservation. The Backward Classes Commission should compile quantifiable data for the purpose by November 30, 2017, it added. Objections to the data would be collected and uploaded on the commission’s website until December 31 before the completion of the remaining process and the final report by March 31, 2018.
The directions were issued in response to petitions filed by Murari Lal Gupta, a resident of Bhiwani district, challenging the constitutional validity of the Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions), Act, 2016. The act provided quota under BC (C) category to Jats, Jat Sikh, Mulla Jat/Muslim Jat, Bishnoi, Ror and Tyagi.