Bihar Announces 50 Percent Reservation in Judicial System

The Bihar government has announced 50 percent reservation in the judicial system, including "horizontal" reservation for women.

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Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet passed the the Bihar Uchcha Nyayik Seva (Sansodhan) Niymawali, 2016, and Bihar Asainik Seva (Sansodhan) Niymawali, 2016 and announced 50 percent reservation in the judicial system on Tuesday.

“In the light of the Supreme Court judgment of September 2016, in the State of Bihar vs Dayanand Singh case, the state cabinet decided to grant 50 per cent reservation in subordinate and superior judicial services for direct appointment after due consultation with the Patna High Court and Bihar Public Service Commission ,” Cabinet Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told the Indian Express.

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The 50 percent reservation is divided into various caste categories like 21 per cent for EBCs, 12 per cent for OBCs, 16 per cent for SCs and 1 percent for STs. In all categories, there will be 35% women’s reservation under the existing policy and 1 percent reservation for people with disabilities. Initially, there were talks of having only 27 percent reservation in subordinate services and no quota in superior services even after 1100 vacancies in both the categories still. Judicial magistrates and munsif magistrates comprise subordinate services while additional and district judges comprise of superior services.

Earlier this year, a division bench of the Supreme Court had asked the state government and Patna High Court to "complete the exercise of providing reservations to backward classes in State’s judicial services by January 1, 2017, and that the process of filling up vacancies in the judicial services by June 30, 2017," The Hindu reports.

Picture credit- Indian Express