April 29: Gujarat's BJP government today announced a 10 per cent job and higher education quota for the poorer among the general category population, but the agitating Patels rejected the apparent pre-election olive branch.

The "economically backward classes" or EBC quota, which the Opposition Congress too rejected, could land the Anandiben Patel government in a legal tangle on two counts.

One, the Supreme Court had ruled in 1992 that the Constitution allows reservation only on the grounds of social and educational backwardness and not poverty per se.

Two, the same judgment set the ceiling for the total volume of reservations in a state or at the Centre at 50 per cent, while the new quota lifts Gujarat's total from 49 to 59 per cent.

Each of these grounds has led the courts to strike down several central and state quotas.

Gujarat's latest quota, to be made official through an ordinance on May 1, is meant for those earning less than Rs 6 lakh a year from the communities that so far enjoyed no reservation benefits.

It's being seen as a sop for the Patidar (Patel) community, agitating for inclusion in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, ahead of state elections late next year.

But the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, the quota movement spearhead, scorned the new quota as a "lollipop".

"We never demanded an EBC quota, we want inclusion under the OBC category," the convener for the Samiti's Saurashtra chapter, Brijesh Patel, said. He condemned the "government attempt to misguide the Patidar community".

OBC reservation too caries a Rs 6-lakh cap in the form of the "creamy layer" cut-off, but would have opened up a 27 per cent quota for the Patels. The new quota leaves the Patels vying with over half the state's population for a 10 per cent share of the pie.

The Congress said the 10 per cent quota was "too little, too late", repeating its demand for a 20 per cent EBC quota.

But a smaller Patel outfit, the Sardar Patel Group, which too has been agitating for reservations, welcomed the new quota.

Ceiling punch

Tamil Nadu is the lone state that provides a cumulative reservation higher than the 50 per cent cap.

When a lawyer, K.M. Vijayan, challenged the state's quota volume of 69 per cent after the apex court set the ceiling, the state government sought an exemption in the interests of the beneficiary students.

Since then, the top court has been granting this exemption on an annual basis. The job quota volume too continues at 69 per cent although it lacks a similar court exemption. However, a final verdict in the case is expected in July, which will cover the job quota too.

In Karnataka, then chief minister Veerappa Moily had raised the quota volume to 69 per cent in the early 1990s, but the apex court struck it down citing the 50 per cent limit.

In 2005-06, when Andhra Pradesh introduced 5 per cent reservation for the backward sections among the minorities, taking the quota volume to 51 per cent, the state high court scrapped it.

When the state pruned the new quota to 4 per cent, bringing the total volume in line with the ceiling, the high court nixed it again on the ground that it would encourage religious conversions. But the apex court has stayed the order, and both Andhra and Telangana are implementing the quota.

Vasundhara Raje's first government in Rajasthan had announced a 14 per cent quota for the poor among the upper castes and 5 per cent reservation for Gujjars, raising the volume to 65 per cent. The high court struck both quotas down.

'Economic' woes

When the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime notified 10 per cent reservation for the poor among the general category communities in 1992, the apex court quashed it as unconstitutional.

Article 15(4) of the Constitution allows the government to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes as well as the SC and ST.

Article 16(4) allows job reservations for any backward class that the State believes is underrepresented in government services.

"The Supreme Court interpreted the term 'backward class' in 16(4) of the Constitution as the socially and educationally backward classes maintained in 15(4). It said there can be no reservation for the so-called economically backward classes," P.S. Krishnan, a former secretary to the then welfare ministry, said.

Minister and Gujarat BJP president Vijay Rupani said the state government was ready for any legal battle over the latest quota. Currently, Gujarat enforces 8 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes, 14 per cent for the Scheduled Tribes and 27 per cent for the Other Backward Classes.

Alpesh Thakor, leader of the SC-ST-OBC Ekta Manch in Gujarat, formed to oppose the Patidars' inclusion within the OBC category, did not directly reject the new quota but dubbed it a politically motivated and "hasty" measure. He asked how the quota volume had been fixed without a survey.

Today's decision came at a meeting attended by BJP national president Amit Shah in Gandhinagar.

So far, the state government has consistently ruled out any tweak in reservations aimed specifically at the Patels.

When the Congress sought a debate on a private member's bill in the Assembly that proposed a 20 per cent EBC quota, the BJP thwarted the move. Rupani claimed the Congress demand lacked sincerity.

Hardik has been in jail since October. Some of his key associates received bail from Gujarat High Court yesterday after undertaking not to participate in the agitation and not to violate law and order.