At last, Bihar Governor gives nod to Reservation Amendment Bill, 2023

PATNA: After a long wait, Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar passed the 75 per cent Reservation Amendment Bill, 2023 for implementation on Tuesday. The Bihar Governor has also issued a notification in this regard.

Earlier, the Bihar Government presented the Bill based on the caste-based survey in Bihar Assembly and Council and both the Houses passed the Bill and recommended it for the Governor’s approval.

All the other Bills passed by the state legislature during the Winter Session were approved by the Governor and returned to the Government. But the Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar was awaiting the Governor’s assent to the legislation that sought to increase reservations in state government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.

With Tuesday’s development the people of Bihar who come under the Extremely Backward Caste (EBC), Other Backward Caste (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) will get the benefit of reservation of up to 75 per cent from the earlier 60 per cent. This will help candidates get admissions to various educational institutions as well as in government jobs.

People coming under the EBC had 18 per cent reservation in the past. After this Bill, the Bihar Government has enhanced the reservation to 25 per cent.

Similarly, the OBC category with 12 per cent reservation earlier will get 18 per cent after this.

The SCs, who had 16 per cent reservation in the past, will get 20 per cent and STs having 1 per cent reservation will now get 2 per cent.

Bihar is not the first state to have 75 per cent reservation for EBC, OBC, SC and ST. As per the new Reservation Bill, Tamil Nadu has 79 per cent, Jharkhand has 77 per cent, Chhattisgarh has 76 per cent, Telangana has 75 per cent and Maharashtra has 72 per cent quota.