State commission recommends bifurcation of 20% SC quota in Haryana ahead of polls

In a significant move in the poll-bound state, the Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes has recommended that half of the 20% quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes in government jobs will be set aside for candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes comprising 36 castes such as Balmikis, Dhanaks, Khatik and Mazhabi Sikhs.

The Haryana cabinet has also accepted this report during a recent meeting in Chandigarh. Addressing a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said, “The Haryana Scheduled Caste Commission Report was accepted by the cabinet. A 20% quota in government jobs will be reserved for scheduled castes, with the commission recommending that 10% of this quota be allocated to the deprived scheduled castes.”

Not implemented due to poll code

The state government has, however, stopped short of implementing the recommendations due to imposition of poll code.

This announcement came following the declaration of assembly election dates by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on August 16. Haryana is set to vote in a single-phase election on October 1, with counting scheduled for October 4.

As per media reports, the commission conducted a data analysis to ascertain the inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in public employment because of their backwardness.

In its report submitted to the council of ministers, the commission said, “If and only if suitable candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes were not available, then candidate from other Scheduled Castes may be considered for appointment to fill the balance vacant posts.” The other Scheduled Castes include Chamars, and related castes like Jatav, Mochi, Raigars, Ramdasias, and Ravidasias.

Move in line with SC judgement

“Similarly, one half of the 20% SC quota will be reserved for candidates from other Scheduled Castes. If suitable candidates from other Scheduled Castes are not available, then candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes may be considered for appointment to fill the balance vacant posts. The inter seniority of the candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes and other Scheduled Castes will be as per the common merit list prepared by the recruiting agency. It will not be necessary to fix the roster points separately for each of the blocks within the present roster system,” the report said.

The move is in line with the seven-judge constitution bench judgement of the Supreme Court allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes by the state governments. Allowing sub-classification of SCs, the apex court had held that the state can sub-classify, inter alia, based on inadequate representation of certain castes. However, the court said the state must establish that the inadequacy of representation of a caste/group is because of its backwardness and must collect data on the inadequacy of representation in the services of the state because it is used as an indicator of backwardness.

'Deprived SCs not adequately represented'

In its report, the commission said that as a result of contemporaneous study conducted by it to assess the representation of deprived Scheduled Castes in government services, they have come to the conclusion that the deprived Scheduled Castes were not adequately represented (39.70%) in the state government services whereas other Scheduled Castes were represented more than adequately (60.30%) in the state government services in comparison to their proportion of their population in the SC category in Haryana.

The commission said that it has clearly found that the reservations for SCs in Groups A, B and C jobs were skewed towards castes in other Scheduled Castes and reservations for SCs in Group D is skewed towards the deprived Scheduled Castes. “Group D has jobs related to sanitation and scavenging which are ascriptive (by birth) in nature and are mostly taken up by the castes included in deprived Scheduled Castes, especially the Balmikis. This needs to be broken to remove the ascription of occupation to birth,” the commission said.