Amend Constitution to ensure reservation to OBC community: ex-MP writes to PM Modi

Even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra is trying to build consensus among the political parties to resolve the issue of Other Backward Class (OBCs) reservation in the local bodies, Haribhau Rathod — former MP and senior OBC leader — has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting to amend the relevant articles of the Constitution to ensure reservation to the OBC community, stating that the 50 per cent ceiling of the reservation is only for employment.

Rathod, in his letter, said that the Supreme Court earlier this year had quashed the elections of the OBC candidates in the local bodies on the ground that the reservation of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBCs were exceeding the 50 per ceiling of the reservation.

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“The 50 per cent limit on reservations in public employment was established by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney judgment under Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India with respect only to public employment. The 50 per cent aggregate ceiling has no application or relevance to reservation of elected positions under Articles 243- D(6) and Article 243-T(6) of the Constitution,” stated Rathod.

“It is now imperative to amend the Constitution and correct the unjust and erroneous decision of the Supreme Court illegally applying the 50 per cent ceiling to OBC reservations, which was developed in an entirely different context,” he added.