In the instant case, a writ petition was filed under article 32 of the constitution of India for quashing two notifications dated 17.08.2016 and 28.08.2018 issued by the state of Haryana on a contention that the said notifications are violative of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution of India.
Added to the above contention it is sought for the direction to the state government to provide reservation to backward classes in Haryana under the Haryana backward classes Act,2016(hereinafter referred to as 2016 act) by considering the criteria by the National Commission for Backward Classes regarding the ‘creamy layer’ or the criteria used by the State of Haryana before the 2016 Act came into effect.
Needful to mention here,
Section 5 of the 2016 Act provides that “persons belonging to the creamy layer amongst the backward classes shall not be considered for admission into reserved seats for other backward class in educational institutions.”
Section 5(2) of the 2016 act provides that the “criterion for exclusion and identification of persons belonging to backward classes as ‘creamy layer’ must be made by the government after taking into consideration social, economic and such other factors, as it deems appropriate.”
Further, In exercise of the power conferred by the above 2016 act the government of Haryana issued a notification dated 17.08.2016 which said that “children of persons having annual income up to 6 lakhs will get the benefit of reservation in services and admission in educational institutions only after the children of persons having gross annual income up to Rs. 3 Lakh getting the benefit i.e, only the left-out quota can be availed by children of persons having annual income up to 6 lakhs.” This notification was challenged by the medical college students in the high court with a grievance about the sub-classification of the backward class group. The high court set aside the above notification on the ground of arbitrariness and set aside the same.
Subsequently, the state government of Haryana issued a notification whereby criteria for computing annual income for the purposes of the notification was fixed as gross annual income i.e. income from all sources which overruled the previous notifications about annual income.
Further, the students have filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the notifications regarding the gross annual income and previous notification regarding the sub-classification of the backward class group but the same was dismissed by the said high court concerned by which an SLP is filed before Hon’ble Supreme court.
Lastly, the hon’ble bench comprising Hon’ble Justice Nageshwara Rao and Hon’ble Justice Aniruddha Bose after hearing the arguments of learned counsels both the parties observed that “The notification on 17.08.2016 was not in conformity with Indra Sawney-I where the hon’ble supreme court in the said judgment held that basis of exclusion of ‘creamy layer cannot be merely economic and also is in contrary to what Section 5(2) of the 2016 Act and for this reason the 17.08.2016 notification is set-aside.”
