Punjab & Haryana HC Sets Aside Income-Based Sub Category Under Backward Classes Quota [Read Order]

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday set aside a government notification fixing income criteria for allotting quota seats to candidates from the backward class category.The impugned notification had been issued on 17 August, 2016 under the Backward Classes Act, 2016. The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday set aside a government notification fixing income criteria for allotting quota seats to candidates from the backward class category. Evidently, even if the intention of the State may not be doubted, and it is nobody's case that there is an ulterior motive in making such a prescription, yet the object intended to be achieved has not yielded any result rather it has resulted in sheer exclusion of a section of people though backward and it possibly may have resulted in excluding those who are identified as socially backward by the Backward Class Commission itself.” The Court was hearing sixteen petitions filed by medical aspirants through Advocate Prithvi Raj Yadav, alleging that the notification was in conflict with the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Indra Sawhney & ors. Relying on Indra Sawhney’s case, the Court noted that economic criteria and well being can be one of the indications for social upliftment but cannot be the sole criteria and set aside the notification, ruling, “The end result is that the State has given a benefit with one hand only to take it away with the other.