Justice Rohini panel submit report on OBC sub-categorisation

NEW DELHI: Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice G Rohini-headed commission has submitted the much-awaited report on the sub-categorisation of the central Other Backward Classes (OBC) list on Monday to the Ministry of Social Justice, Government of India, after six long years.

The commission was formed under the leadership of former Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini and was assigned the task to investigate the issues pertaining to the sub-categorisation of the central OBC list back in 2017. Earlier, the commission was supposed to submit its report in 12 weeks. However, it received 14 extensions from the government in the past six years and submitted its report on the last day of its functioning on Monday, July 31.

The commission was established to investigate allegations that the OBC reservation benefits only a few dominant caste groups. After confirming the truth of these claims, the commission was tasked with examining the possibility of sub-categorising the central OBC list to ensure that the benefits of the 27 per cent reservation are equitably distributed among all 2,600 caste groups.

As per the sources, the commission has recommended breaking the caste groups into different categories, with dominant castes getting a smaller portion of the 27 per cent reservation and the historically left-out caste groups getting the largest share of the reservation provision.

Apart from the sub-categorisation of the central OBC list, the commission also undertook a detailed examination of the entries in the OBC list and suggested some corrections and omissions to rationalise the list of castes.

Since the commission has submitted its report to the Ministry of Social Justice, it is up to the government whether to implement the recommendation as recommended by the commission or with some modifications. The report has not been released in the public domain.

Submission of the report comes at a time when many states, even the ones ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have gone on to conduct their own caste survey. Recently, Patna High Court, in its judgement on Tuesday, upheld the right of the Bihar Government to conduct an independent caste survey.