MP High Court strikes down 27% OBC quota law, restores 14% reservation

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has struck down the 2019 law raising OBC reservation to 27 per cent. The ruling restores the quota to 14 per cent and is set to be challenged in the Supreme Court.

In Short

• The bench found no exceptional grounds to breach the 50 per cent cap
• Recruitment agencies must fill withheld posts from the unreserved category quickly
• The 2019 quota change covered both government jobs and educational admissions

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday struck down the 2019 law that had raised reservation for Other Backward Classes in the state from 14 per cent to 27 per cent, terming it unconstitutional. With the ruling, the OBC quota has been restored to 14 per cent.

In its 159-page order, a division bench of Justices Anand Pathak and Vinay Saraf also directed recruitment agencies to fill, within three months, the 13 per cent of posts that had been kept on hold after the law was challenged. The court said these posts should now be filled from the unreserved category.

Advocate General Prashant Singh, appearing for the state government, said the verdict was delivered after the court examined documents, data and tables. He said the dispute was over the increase in OBC reservation from 14 per cent to 27 per cent in 2019 in government jobs and education, and not over reservation for backward communities itself.

He said the court found no exceptional circumstances to justify crossing the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation, while taking into account Supreme Court rulings in the Indra Sawhney and Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil cases.

The court directed the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, the Employees Selection Board and other recruitment agencies to complete the required action on the 13 per cent of posts within three months.

The then Kamal Nath-led Congress government, which was in office from December 2018 to March 2020, had increased OBC reservation from 14 per cent to 27 per cent in 2019 through an ordinance issued on March 8. It became a law on August 14 that year.

The move was challenged in the high court, after which the matter also went to the Supreme Court before being sent back to the Madhya Pradesh High Court for a joint hearing and decision on the connected petitions. The final hearing in the batch of petitions ended on August 5, 2026, following which the bench reserved its verdict.

Reacting to the ruling, state Congress president Jitu Patwari said his party would continue its fight for 27 per cent OBC reservation. He accused the BJP government and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav of acting against OBCs and said the Congress would challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court.

The OBC Mahasabha also expressed disappointment over the verdict. Lokendra Gurjar, a member of its national core committee and one of the petitioners, said the organisation would challenge the order in the Supreme Court and launch a state-wide agitation to protect the rights of OBCs.

Former Madhya Pradesh State Backward Classes Commission chairman J P Dhanopia alleged that the ruling was the result of the state government's "ill intentions". He said the government had failed to place the facts effectively before the court, depriving OBCs of the benefits of 27 per cent reservation.

With the high court striking down the 2019 law, OBC reservation in Madhya Pradesh has returned to 14 per cent, and the posts kept pending because of the legal challenge are to be filled from the unreserved category within three months, even as the verdict is set to be challenged in the Supreme Court.

- Ends