Committed to reservation for Jat community, says Haryana

The Haryana government on Friday stated that it was committed to extend reservation in jobs and educational institutions to the Jat community in the state.

Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan on Friday told the state assembly that the Haryana government was committed to defend the inclusion of Jat community in Special Backward Classes category and is already in the process of filing a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana High Court's July 27 stay order.

Replying to a calling attention notice regarding inclusion of Jat community in the central list of Other Backward Classes during the ongoing monsoon session of the assembly, he made it clear that the sensitive subject lies in the domain of the central government and not of the state government.

Mahajan said that the issue of reservation to five castes, including Jat, Jat Sikh, Ror, Tyagi and Bishnoi, in jobs and admission in educational institutions was challenged by various individuals and associations before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

"As these (court) orders only restrained the state and not quashed the reservations to Special Backward Classes (SBC), the state government has issued guidelines for educational institutions and recruitments in the state," he said.

The Jat community in Haryana is politically dominant even though their population is not a majority.