MP high court stays selection of school teachers over 27% OBC quota provision
A contempt petition filed by Prabal Pratap Singh and others said the high court earlier stayed implementation of 27% OBC reservation in the state.
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday stayed the state government order on 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBC) and 10% for the economically weaker sections in recruitment for higher secondary school teachers.
A division bench of chief justice Ravi Vijay Kumar Malimath and justice Vijay Kumar Shukla stayed the final list of selected teachers released by the commissioner of the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) by implementing 27% OBC reservation and 10% EWS quota last week.
The court also sought a reply from the state government on crossing the 50% reservation limit imposed by the Supreme Court. As of now, the reservation in Madhya Pradesh is 73%.
A contempt petition filed by Prabal Pratap Singh and 11 others said the high court earlier stayed implementation of 27% OBC reservation in the state.
“Earlier, rejecting the application to revoke the stay on implementation of 27% OBC reservation, the high court fixed the final date of hearing on December 6. Despite this, the government implemented OBC and EWS reservation to fill posts of higher secondary teachers,” said lawyer Aditya Sanghi who appeared for one of the petitioners.
“The General Administration Department issued a circular citing the opinion of the advocate general that 27% reservation can be implemented in other departments other than the cases in which the high court has stayed. On the basis of this circular, the Public Instruction Commissioner has issued the final list of selected teachers,” said Sanghi.
The lawyer said there was a clear order of the Supreme Court that the reservation should not exceed 50%. Due to the implementation of OBC and EWS reservations, the total reservation exceeds 73%. Apart from this, there is no constitutional provision for caste-based reservation, Sanghi said.
Additional advocate general RK Verma said, “After hearing the petition, the division bench issued notice to the state government and sought reply by December 6.”