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Congress hails Chopra recommendations

JAIPUR: The Legal Cell of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday welcomed the recommendations of the Justice Chopra Committee – which looked into the Gujjars’ claim for Scheduled Tribe status – for reviewing the reservation policy and excluding the “creamy layer” of Scheduled Castes and Tribes from its purview.

Legal Cell convenor Chetan Bairwa said the Chopra Committee had rightly observed that certain sections among the SCs/STs were taking away most of the benefits of reservation and the vast majority of the poor and underprivileged people had been deprived.

“Extending reservation to those belonging to the creamy layer among SCs/STs contravenes Article 16(4) of the Constitution which empowers the State to provide reservation only to backward classes of citizens not adequately represented in the government services,” said Mr. Bairwa, who is also a lawyer at the Rajasthan High Court.

Mr. Bairwa said despite the long drawn out agitation of Gujjars there could be no justification for the rich and powerful among the SCs/STs getting reservation. The creamy layer’s provision should be introduced in the quota for SCs and STs on the lines of Other Backward Classes, he added.

This stand has been spelt out by a Congress office-bearer for the first time in the State after the Chopra Committee submitted its report to the State Government on Monday. The Committee, while observing that the Gujjars’ demand for enlistment in the ST category could not be met, stated that the benefits of reservation had not reached the deserving people.

Mr. Bairwa is at present representing the Babu Jagjeevan Ram Samta Andolan in a writ petition moved in the Rajasthan High Court seeking exclusion of the creamy layer among the SCs and STs from the purview of reservation in employment and education.

The Supreme Court remitted the case back to the High Court recently for being decided afresh after setting aside its order of February 2005 disposing of the petition without entering into its merit.

A Division Bench of the High Court has since restored the writ petition for reconsideration and re-hearing.

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