Jammu Kashmir News: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday said that any appointment made under the amended reservation rules 2005 will be subject to the outcome of a petition challenging the validity of the rules. The court was hearing a petition filed by five candidates.

The petitioners have demanded that the amended reservation rules be declared invalid. The division bench of Justice Atul Shridharan and Moksha Khajuria Kazmi has sought the assistance of the Advocate General on the next hearing.

According to the petitioners, after the amendments, the number of seats in the Open Merit (OM) category in government posts and educational institutions has been reduced from 57 percent to 33 percent. Similarly, reservation for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) was reduced from 20 percent to 10, Scheduled Tribes (ST) from 10 percent to 20, Social Castes (SC) from 2 percent to 8, ALC from 3 percent to 4 and PHC from 3 to 4 percent. The government amended the rules and added new categories.

Hearing in the High Court on the issue of reservation 

3 percent reservation was given to the children of defense personnel, 1 percent reservation to the children of police personnel and 2 percent reservation to candidates performing in sports. The petitioners have demanded to apply rationality in reservation to maintain the limit of 50 percent for open merit and general category, which has more than 70 percent population in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the petition, the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 clearly states that the total reservation should not exceed 50 per cent in any case, but the provision for 70 per cent reservation in appointments is included in the Constitution,

It is also a violation of the Supreme Court's decision and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act. The petitioners argued that the percentage of open merit in Jammu and Kashmir is more than that of RBA. Therefore, it is logical to reserve 57 percent seats for OM category, 20 percent for RBA and 23 percent seats for the other three categories in the Reservation Act, 2005. The Supreme Court has said in its decision in Indra Sawhney vs Union of India that the percentage of reservation should never exceed 50 percent. The petition considers the amended reservation rule a violation of the Supreme Court's decision. The next hearing date has been fixed for December 27.