Should the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?

Source: This post has been created based on the article “Should the 50% legal ceiling on reservation be reconsidered?” published in The Hindu on 13^th October 2023.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Governance — Government policies and interventions.
GS Paper 2 Social Justice — Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of the vulnerable sections.

News: This article discusses the arguments for reconsidering the 50% legal ceiling on reservation in light of the recently released Bihar Caste Census. It also discusses the need for sub-categorisation within the OBCs, as well as the various impacts of a caste census.

What are the arguments in favour of reconsidering the 50% ceiling on reservation?

1) Arbitrariness of the number: Many political scientists and sociologists view the 50% ceiling as arbitrary because the judiciary did not have the data to back that.

2) 50% ceiling not followed universally: Some States have already breached it. For instance, Tamil Nadu provides 69% reservation through a law placed under the Ninth Schedule. The 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections [EWS] is also an exception to the rule.

3) Lack of a principled defence: The judiciary elevated the principle [50% limit] almost to the status of a fundamental right in the Indra Sawhney case even in the absence of a principled defence.

Why is there a need for reconfiguration within the OBC, SC and ST categories?

OBC is an administrative category and not a caste category, with heterogenous castes grouped under the OBCs. In light of this:

1) Underrepresentation within the OBCs: There is a risk of the landed and locally dominant communities taking more advantage.
In this case, sub-categorisation of underrepresented communities will be important. For instance, Bihar has the Extreme Backward Classes (EBCs) category.

2) Definitional issues: There is no clear way of defining the OBCs like there is for SCs and STs.

3) Unreliable Data: Data is only useful when there is a clear idea of what one is looking for. For instance, if the number of government jobs is a factor, a lot of OBCs will not be eligible for reservation.
Just by setting up a vague eligibility condition and saying that everybody who is below is an OBC has led to certain castes disproportionately benefiting from reservation.

What can be some of the negative fallouts of the caste census?

1) A caste census may lead to further accentuation of caste identities and a fragmented polity.

2) People with vested interests may exploit this.

3) There is a risk that political parties or caste groups will use the excuse of representation to mean specific caste-based mobilisation.

4) Caste census takes away focus from the ongoing privatisation of the state and the contractualisation of labour. Also, a lot of States have stopped filling vacant posts.

What should be done?

Addressing group-based deprivation through caste census may lead to caste-based mobilisation. Hence, a caste census has to come along with a simultaneous ideological campaign or a political mobilisation which counters individual caste-mobilisation.