The Delhi High Court has come to the aid of a civil service aspirant from Rajasthan, who was denied OBC reservation benefits, on the ground that his caste certificate described him as belonging to ‘Jat Sikh’ community.
The High Court observed that a person professing Sikh religion belonging to ‘Jat’ community in Rajasthan, except Bharatpur and Dhaulpur districts, is entitled to get OBC certificate.
Anuragbachan Singh had secured the overall rank of 673 in Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2017, but was not allocated any service while another OBC candidate, with overall rank of 675 was allocated the Indian Revenue Service. The reason given by the Centre for not selecting and allocating a service to Mr. Singh as an OBC candidate was that ‘Jat Sikh’ did not figure in the class enlisted as a backward community in the Central list for Rajasthan.
CAT order
Mr. Singh, on the other hand, contended that the Central government recognized ‘Jat’ as ‘OBC’ in Rajasthan except in two districts, and being a resident of Sri Ganganagar district he was entitled to claim reservation. Subsequently, he approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, which on March 11 this year, ruled that he was entitled to be treated as ‘OBC’ and directed the Centre to allot him the appropriate service, duly extending the benefit of reservation. The Centre then moved HC against the order of the tribunal.
A Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar rejected the Centre’s petition noting that, “The enlistment of the backward class for the purposes of grant of reservation is religion neutral”.
The Bench highlighted a November 2001 circular of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment which said any caste/community irrespective of its religion can be considered for inclusion in the Central lists of OBCs provided the community fulfil the criteria.
“That being the position, merely because the respondent’s [Mr. Singh] religion i.e. Sikhism was mentioned in class certificate issued to the respondent, it did not take way the fact that he belonged to the ‘Jat community’ which is a reserved class,” the Bench remarked.
It also took note of the fact that the same authority, namely, the SDM, Sri Ganganagar has issued a subsequent class certificate, which described Mr. Singh’s community as ‘Jat’
