Guj HC notice to Centre, state on plea against OBC list

The Gujarat High Court today sought the stands of the Union and the state governments on a plea seeking cancellation of a 1994 official resolution which had inducted people of 39 castes into the OBC list.
The plea by BJP corporator Ajmal Thakor of Visnagar Nagarpalika in Mehsana district also sought a fresh survey to identify other backward communities and create a new list of the Other Backward Class.
The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi issued notices to the Union and the state governments as well as the national and state OBC commissions on Thakor's petition.

Thakor in his plea filed through his counsel Rohit Patel contended that the inclusion of 39 castes in the OBC list was not based on any review or recommendation of the OBC panel and that it was against the Supreme Court's 1993 order in Indra Sahwney case.
In the Sahwney case, while directing periodic review of the list every ten years, the apex court had ordered that no caste be included without recommendation or review of the commission.
The 1994 official resolution was made by the state government alone and was based on Parikshit Majmudar Commission's recommendation of 1953 in the old state of Saurashtra, it said.

The Thakor community (to which the petitioner belongs) being the largest community in the caste included in the list, is denied rightful opportunity under reservation due to faulty list, said the petition.

The 1994 decision of the state government was motivated by the vote-bank politics and was not backed by any review or recommendation, it said.
The petition sought the court's direction to scrap the 1994 Government Resolution, to freeze the current jobs and admissions being given on the basis of the list and to have the OBC list reviewed by the commission.
A similar plea was filed on January 19 this year by Prakash Patel who too has sought dismissal of the government's 1994 GR and holding a fresh decadal review of the OBC list by the state OBC commission.