Jharkhand assembly passes twin bills; Raises overall reservation to 77 percent, sets 1932 cut off for domicile rights

In the proposed reservation, local people of the SC community will get a quota of 12 per cent, STs will get 28 per cent, Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) 15 per cent, OBCs 12 per cent, and EWS barring those from the other reserved categories 10 per cent.

Ranchi: The Jharkhand assembly on Friday passed two bills, including one that raises the total percentage of reservations in the state to 77%. The special session of the assembly passed an amendment to the Jharkhand Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services Act, 2001, increasing the reservation cover for categories such as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Sections.

Within aforementioned categories, the SC community will get an increased cover of 12 percent (from 10 percent), while it presented 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes.

The Scheduled Tribes will get 28 percent coverage compared to the previous 26 percent. EWS reservation stands at 10 percent under the new legislature. If enacted, the amendment will amount to a jump of 27 percent, from the previous overall reservation of 60 percent.

The state government, headed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren, stated that it will request the Centre to include the act within the ninth schedule of the Constitution to protect it from judicial scrutiny. Hailed by Soren as a 'Suraksha Kavach' (security shield), the bill garnered staunch criticism from the opposition BJP and eventually was passed amid protests.

The second bill, titled "Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons and for Extending the Consequential, Social, Cultural and Other Benefits to Such Local Persons Bill, 2022", granted domicile rights to those who had the names of their ancestors in land records dating back to 1932 or before.