Bihar Assembly passes bill to increase caste-based quota from 50% to 65%

This is higher than the limit of 50% set by the Supreme Court for total reservations in 1992.

Nov 9, 2023 - 18:30

Bihar Assembly passes bill to increase caste-based quota from 50% to 65%

The Bihar Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a bill to increase caste-based reservations in education and government jobs from 50% to 65%, crossing the ceiling set by the Supreme Court. The bill now needs the approval of the governor to become a law.

The development came three days after Kumar proposed the hike after releasing a full report on the caste census in the Assembly.

Under the bill, Scheduled Castes will get a reservation of 20%, up from 16%, while the quota for Scheduled Tribes has been doubled from 1% to 2%. Other Backward Classes will get 15% reservation, up from 12%, PTI reported. For Extremely Backward Classes, the quota will raised from 18% to 25%

The government has explained that since another 10% Economically Weaker Sections quota is effective under a different Act, it will not be a part of the current bill. With the 10% reservations, the total quota limit in the state will increase to 75% now.

This is well past the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court in 1992 for total caste-based reservations.

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