SRINAGAR: The three-member Cabinet Sub-Committee on reservation rules under the chairmanship of Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Itoo, interacted with several public delegations and students regarding their grievances on reservation rules at SKICC here today.
Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest, Ecology & Environment and Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmad Rana and Minister for Youth Services and Sports, Satish Sharma (members of Sub-committee); Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Sanjeev Verma; Commissioner Secretary, GAD, M Raju; Secretary Law, Achal Sethi and senior officers from General Administration department and Social Welfare department also participated in the meeting.
During the interaction, the delegations presented their viewpoint regarding the existing reservation policy to the subcommittee.
While examining their grievances and issues regarding reservation rules, the Sub-Committee assured them that the government will take viewpoint of every section of society to arrive at an amicable solution where everyone’s interest is safeguarded.
The Sub-Committee further said that they are open for discussions with everyone in order to reach cordial solution.
The Sub-Committee added that they will present its report within the given time frame of six months to the council of ministers headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Pertinently, the Cabinet Sub-Committee was constituted by the Omar Abdullah-led government after assuming power to look into grievances projected by several sections of aspirants against the existing reservation rules.
Earlier, the J&K government had defended the controversial Reservation Policy in the High Court that gives ‘lion’s share’ to certain sections of the society, leaving little for the open merit candidates.
The ploy of the government in this regard is that it was the duty of the State “to give equal opportunities to all the sections of the social order and take the downtrodden out of their disadvantageous and unfavourable position”.
The government filed its objections to the petitions filed in the High Court of J&K and Ladakh wherein the petitioners contend that due to the amendments in the Reservation Rules of 2005 by Lieutenant Governor-led administration, there is a phenomenal decrease in the percentage in government jobs and seats in educational institutions for the open merit candidates — from 57 percent to just 33 percent.
The petitioners had contended that in the post-2019 scenario, the amendments effected in the Reservation Policy granted major share to different “bad pocket categories” and virtually left crumbs for the majority, the general category population candidates in the admissions in professional courses and appointments in the government service.
While calling the pleas that challenged the post-2019 amendments as an attempt to “abuse the judicial process motivated by ill-will, ulterior and oblique motives”, the J&K government’s Social Welfare Department in the affidavit filed on Friday stressed an “equitable distribution of the resources so as to ensure prevailing of justice in its true sense, as destined upon, in the Constitution.”
The affidavit read “it is important to note that no particular section of the society has indefeasible, inalienable and absolute right to reservation in perpetuity. “It is the government which has to maintain equilibrium in the society and has to see that all such sections of the society that need special measures for their advancement and progress are provided so and also the duration to continue the same, thus empowering and enabling them to contribute in nation building.”
Accordingly, as per the constitutional mandate, the affidavit claimed that the “Government is entitled to include or exclude any particular section to be dealt with under the provision of the reservation and to make the country a ‘socialist’ one in its true spirit.”
The government said that the plea challenging the reservation policy was “enthused” with an ambition of intervention in the “separation of powers” so much so that the petitioners want to control the legislative powers of the government by misusing the power of “judicial review”.
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peoples Conference (PC) on Saturday slammed the National Conference (NC) government for defending the reservation policy, which provides 70 percent quota to various groups, in the high court.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Social Welfare Department has submitted an affidavit in the high court, saying the writ petition is “mischievous” and “frivolous in nature” and has been filed with “an intent to abuse the judicial process”.
The government has sought dismissal of the petition titled ‘Zahoor Ahmad Bhat and others versus UT of J&K and others’.
The affidavit comes even as the government has constituted a Cabinet sub-committee, headed by Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo, to look into the issue of reservation after protests over the policy.
PDP MLA from Pulwama Waheed Para said the Cabinet sub-committee was nothing, but a “facade to mislead” the public.
Peoples’ Conference chief and Handwara MLA Sajad Gani Lone said the government has not mentioned the formation of the Cabinet sub-committee in its affidavit.
“Nowhere has the government mentioned the formation of a sub-committee on reservations. This is a legal mystery. Seems the government is not taking its own committee serious enough to merit a mention in its legal affidavit,” Lone said on X.
Facing heat over its affidavit in the high court that has described a petition challenging its reservation policy as “mischievous and frivolous”, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday said it will file a fresh response before the court, if need be.
Addressing a press conference in Anantnag, Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on the reservation issue, said the government is seriously committed to addressing the matter and the affidavit in question is vague.
The cabinet sub-committee was formed by the government in December last year to look into the grievances highlighted by several sections of the aspirants against the existing reservation rules in government jobs.
Itoo said the cabinet sub-committee is meeting youth representatives and examining the issue.
“The seriousness of the government can be gauged from the fact that the committee has been given a six-month deadline. Every day, the committee explains to the chief minister how many representatives it met and what developments took place,” she said.
Itoo said the government is sympathetic towards the issue and wants it to be settled.
On the affidavit submitted by the Social Welfare Department in the high court that has termed the petition challenging the reservation policy “mischievous and frivolous”, the minister said it was “vaguely” prepared.
“Unfortunately, some politicians find opportunities to criticise the government. Had the government not been committed, why would it have formed a committee and given it a deadline of six months?
“If the government needs to submit a fresh affidavit in the court, in which it needs to be written that the wrongs committed will be set right, it will do it and not hesitate,” she said.
Meanwhile, the ruling NC has distanced itself from the affidavit.
“We do not support the affidavit. It has been submitted in a distorted way, without taking into consideration the ground realities,” NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said.
He said the cabinet sub-committee was constituted to listen to the opinions of each and every side.
“The sub-committee will submit its report. We would request people not to go by such kind of diversions,” he said.
