Pleas challenging validity of amendments to Jammu & Kashmir Reservation Rules listed for hearing on March 7

Srinagar, March 2: The clubbed pleas calling into question the validity of amendments to Jammu & Kashmir Reservation Rules are likely to come up for consideration on March 7 before a division bench of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh

In the Regular Cause list of the High Court, the case figures at serial 3 for the division bench of the court comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Puneet Gupta.

The petitioners contend that due to the amendments in the Reservation Rules of 2005 by authorities, there is a decrease in the percentage in Jammu and Kashmir Government Recruitment posts and seats in educational institutions for open merit from 57 percent to 33 percent, Residents of Backward Area (RBA) from 20 percent to 10 percent while there is an increase in reservation in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) from 10 percent to 20 percent, Social Caste from 2 percent to 8 percent, and ALC from 3 percent to 4 percent, PHC from 3 percent to 4 percent.

The aggrieved petitioners seek the court’s intervention to declare Rule 4, Rule 5, Rule 13, Rule 15, Rule 18, Rule 21 and Rule 23 of the J&K Reservation Rules, 2005 as amended through various SOs as ultra vires the constitution.