OBC Quota Should Be Raised to 52%, says Sharad Yadav

On Dec. 23, 2011 Janta Dal (United) (JDU) demanded to raise reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 27% to 52% in educational institutions and government jobs. Moreover, Sharad Yadav, the Party’s National President urged to scrap the creamy layer provision in OBC reservation. According to Yadav, the estimated OBC population by the Mandal Commission is 52% of total population but it has increased to 60%.

He says that the Supreme Court capped the reservation at 50% which confined OBC quota to 27%. A legal framework is required to do away with 50% limit and OBC reservation quota should be accordance to their population i.e. 52%.

 Sharad also said that creamy layer provision should be scrapped as not all the reserved seats are filled up by OBCs. According to him, the provision of creamy layer is unconstitutional and it is a result of a personal opinion of Supreme Court judges. Initially, the reservation was accepted by judges as whom among OBCs got reservation didn’t matter.

The creamy layer provision aims at protecting economically poor OBCs from wealth OBCs but there is no mention of "creamy layer of economic advancement of backwardness" in the Indian Constitution.

Yadav said a constitutional amendment should be made for cancelling creamy layer provision as it was passed through Supreme Court judgement and it deprives a specific group of OBCs from advantages of reservation.