Chances of early approval to pending caste-quota bills by Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey are further fading with the governor house on Wednesday expressing dissatisfaction over the replies of the government to its queries and also taking exception to comments made on the legal advisor to the governor.
The governor’s office released a detailed note titled ‘situation and facts about baseless comments on governor and governor house regarding reservation bills’ on Wednesday evening, hours after Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel reiterated that the governor was adopting delaying tactics by putting in questions to the government despite unanimous passage of the bills by the state Assembly - the highest ‘panchayat’ of the state.
The tug of war is over the two bills passed by Chhattisgarh Assembly on December 2, that provides for total 76 per cent caste-based quota including 32 per cent quota for scheduled tribes, 13 per cent to scheduled castes, 27 percent to OBCs and 4 per cent to economically backward sections (EWS).
Baghel said on Wednesday that as per the Constitution, the governor had only three options on the bills—either to return them, send them to the president of India or hold on to them indefinitely. The governor, however, was taking a fourth option of sending queries to the state government—an action that has no constitutional basis, he said. Baghel also reiterated that the legal advisor of the governor, who sat in the state BJP office, was behaving like an authority higher than the State Assembly.
In its retaliatory note, the governor's office said that the legal advisor to the governor was a judicial officer of the level of district judge appointed by the state high court and “it was improper to comment upon the advisor and to talk about the officers, employees of the Raj Bhavan”.
The note also included point by point rebuttal on state government's replies to the 10-point query of the Raj Bhavan, with the main contention that the government had not sent across the report of the quantifiable data commission – basis of the quota division - to the Raj Bhavan though it claimed to do so. The Raj Bhavan also said that the government had failed to clearly outline the ‘special circumstances’, especially those arising after September 19, 2022 (when Chhattisgarh High Court quashed a 2011 legislation providing 58 per cent quota) that warranted quota over 50 per cent constitutional cap. It was also mentioned that the government had failed to outline the details to prove the social, economic and academic backwardness of the SC and ST communities in the state and also not given any information on formation of any committee to study such backwardness. Objections and dissatisfaction were also mentioned about replies on other points.
The government in its replies had mentioned that the quota for the SC/ST population was fixed on the basis of Census 2011 data and the historically accepted situation about their social, economic and academic backwardness. It also mentioned that the OBC quota per cent was fixed as per report of a quantifiable data commission constituted for the purpose.
Baghel said that all discussions on the issue were held in the Assembly and the bills got passed unanimously in the house that has members of ruling Congress and opposition BJP, BSP and Janta Congress, Chhattisgarh. He said that in such situations no questions should arise on the bills, yet the government had replied to the queries of the Raj Bhavan.
Other Congress leaders including state Congress president Moham Markam have been talking of BJP pressure behind delay in signing of the bills by the governor. The Congress has planned a protest rally on the issue on January 3. Meanwhile, a section of Sarv Adiwasi Samaj has already started agitation on the delay. OBCs and tribal communities will be the biggest gainers if the bills become legislation (when governor signs them) as their quota will increase from 14 to 27 per cent and from 20 per cent to 32 per cent respectively.
