Madhya Pradesh HC strikes down 2019 law raising OBC quota to 27%, citing the 50% reservation ceiling

Deciding a batch of over a hundred writ petitions filed since 2019, the Madhya Pradesh High Court struck down the Madhya Pradesh Lok Sewa (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Act, 2019, which had raised the reservation for Other Backward Classes in public employment and education from 14% to 27%. A Division Bench of Justices Anand Pathak and Vinay Saraf held that this increase, when added to the existing 16% reservation for Scheduled Castes and 20% for Scheduled Tribes, took total reservation in the State beyond 50%, breaching the ceiling laid down by the Supreme Court's nine-judge bench in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) and reaffirmed in Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister (2021). The Court held that the 'extraordinary' and 'exceptional' circumstances required to justify crossing the 50% ceiling, as set out in paragraph 810 of Indra Sawhney, had not been shown on the State's own data, which indicated OBCs were already adequately represented in public services and higher education.

Appointments made with 27% OBC reservation up to 29 September 2022, when the State government had clarified an interim court order, were held valid and not to be disturbed. For appointments after that date, recruiting agencies such as the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission must now fill the balance 13% of posts, earlier reserved for OBC candidates above 14%, from the unreserved category within three months.