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Politics over 27 pc OBC reservation in MP: Now, Congress engages senior advocates in HC

Final hearing to start on September 20; solicitor general appears for MP govt

PTI18-10-2020_000096B

Even as the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday listed the 27 per cent OBC reservation-related cases for final hearing on September 20, the political manoeuvres aimed at taking credit for it continued, with MP Congress deciding to put up senior advocates to argue the case in favour of enhanced reservation.

The decision to put up senior counsels Indira Jaising and Abhishek Manu Singhvi to argue the case during the subsequent hearings was taken during a meeting of ex-chief minister and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath with OBC leaders in New Delhi. Narendra Saluja, media coordinator of Kamal Nath, confirmed the decision to THE WEEK.

The two senior advocates of the Supreme Court will be appearing for a clutch of petitions supporting the 27 per cent reservations filed by individuals and organisations, sources said.

Meanwhile, the BJP government sought to highlight its commitment to the enhanced reservation as Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta appeared through video conferencing for the hearing on Wednesday. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had met the solicitor general last week to discuss the issue and request him to appear in the matter.

Also, on Wednesday, the CM reiterated before the media that his government was fully committed towards 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and better legal representation has started and every required step will be taken in future too.

Interestingly, both the Congress and BJP are supporting the enhanced OBC reservation in the state, but are at daggers drawn to take the political credit for actually getting it implemented. As the matter is still in the court, they are trying to get the better of each other on the legal front.

It was the Congress government that, in March 2019, brought about the amendment to the SC/ST/OBC reservation Act of 1994 to enhance reservation. However, since the matter got legally embroiled, its implementation was stalled.

The BJP government that came into power again in March 2020, failed to take any serious steps to get the matter legally cleared till it assumed political importance recently. Since then, both the Congress and the BJP have played the blame game and have been rushing to take credit on the issue.

No interim order, says MP High Court

The double bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla said during Wednesday’s hearing that it will not pass any interim order but will list the matter for final hearing starting September 20. The court also did not dispose off the plea of the state government to vacate the stay on declaration of results of the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET).

“The court partially accepted our plea for vacation of stay by saying that there was no point in issuing any interim order or vacating the stay granted at this late stage of hearing and by the way of listing all matters for final hearing on September 20,” Madhya Pradesh Advocate General Purushaindra Kaurav told THE WEEK.

He also reiterated that the stay by the High Court is just on three cases – PG medical admissions, declaration of results of medical officers recruitment by MP Public Service Commission and declaration of results of the Teachers’ Eligibility Test. “There is no stay on the implementation of the amended Act of 2019 (enhancing the OBC reservation from 14 per cent to 27 per cent) in any other way and the state government has also made some appointments on this basis,” Kaurav said.

Meanwhile, advocate Rameshwar Singh Thakur, who has been appearing for a clutch of petitioners supporting the enhancement of reservation said that the petitions have been divided into three categories for final hearing – the petitions challenging the constitutionality of the enhanced reservation, those supporting the amended Act for enhanced reservation and the petitions challenging the particular recruitment processes. He told THE WEEK that the petitions challenging constitutionality will be taken up first for final hearing.

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