Reservation for Gujjar people still a distant dream

The Gujjar reservation now rests in the hands of the Union government, which is likely to play a decisive role in resolving the five per cent reservation demand. The Rajasthan government has agreed to introduce a fresh reservation bill in the state Assembly and send the legislation to the Centre for including it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

But Gujjars will get reservation only when the Centre undertakes the related exercise. “The state government would pass the bill in the cabinet and the state assembly and then send it for inclusion in the Ninth Schedule. Once the bill is sent to Parliament, the state government will have no role and everything will depend on the Union government,” said A K Jain, a senior advocate of Rajasthan High Court.

To include the legislation in the Ninth Schedule, the Union government will also have to pass a proposal in Parliament. The state government can only convince the national leadership to do so, he added.

The Gujjars would be given reservation as ‘Specially Backward Classes’ under a separate bill, which will take overall reservation to beyond the 50 per cent limit earlier fixed by the Supreme Court. The government also agreed to bring a separate bill for 14 per cent reservation to economically backward classes. Once both the bills are passed, the overall reservation in the state will go up to 68 per cent and the number of general category seats will come down to just 32 per cent, which can be easily challenged in court.

To avoid legal challenges, the government has assured Gujjars to get the legislation included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. On the contrary, legal experts feel that legislations listed on the Ninth Schedule can also be reviewed legally, and presently 30 such legislations are under legal review.

“Bench of nine judges of Supreme Court has already given its decision long back that legislations listed in the Ninth Schedule can be reviewed in a court of law. So far 284 laws have been listed in the Ninth Schedule and 30 are being reviewed in court,” said Hemraj, a legal expert.

In its previous tenure too, the BJP government had passed two bills to provide five per cent reservation to Gujjars and 14 per cent to economically backward classes. The then government had announced to send both the bills to the Centre for listing in the Ninth Schedule.

Meanwhile, Congress came to power and the bills were not forwarded. “Had the Gehlot government pursued the matter, Gujjars would have got reservation by now. The previous government did nothing,” said a BJP leader.