‘Justice Rohini panel report on OBC quota yet to be submitted’

The Union ministry of social justice told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that it has not yet received the report from the Justice G. Rohini Commission, which was tasked with examining the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

In response to a query by DMK MP VS Matheswaran in the Lok Sabha, the minister of state for social justice, BL Verma, clarified that the commission, headed by the former Delhi high court chief justice, submitted its report to the President on July 31, 2023, but added that it was not yet received by the ministry.

“The commission to examine sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constituted under the chairmanship of justice G. Rohini, has submitted its reports to the President on 31 July, 2023, which has not been received in this department,” the response said.

Additionally, when asked about the sharing of caste data from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 with the commission, the ministry responded, “As per information available in this department, no request for sharing the caste data from Socio-Economic Caste Census, 2011 has been received from justice G. Rohini led commission for the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).”

The four-member commission was established on October 2, 2017 to ensure a fair distribution of reservation benefits among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in India. It was formed by the President in accordance with Article 340 of the Indian Constitution, which empowers the President to appoint a commission to assess the status of socially and educationally backward classes and recommend measures to improve their conditions.

The commission’s members include justice G Rohini, along with JK Bajaj, director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Chennai, Gauri Basu, director of the Anthropological Survey of India in Kolkata, and Vivek Joshi, registrar general and census commissioner.

The recommendations of the panel -- which are not publicly known -- can have a seismic impact on India’s social and political landscape. It comes at a time when caste politics is already witnessing a churn due to a number of states holding caste surveys and others implementing sub-categorisation of scheduled castes, in accordance with the landmark verdict of the Supreme Court last year.

HT has previously reported that the report, which is more than 1,000-pages long, is divided in two parts -- the first deals with how the OBC quota should be allocated; and the second is an updated list of all 2,633 OBC castes across the country. Citing people aware of the matter, HT also reported that the panel looked at data linked to 100,000 admissions under the OBC quota in central education institutes and 130,000 recruitments in the central government between 2015 and 2018, finding that a quarter of the share of benefits went to just 10 OBC castes, another quarter to 38 castes, a third quarter to 102 castes and under a fourth (22.3%) to 506 castes . However, a staggering 983 castes got no benefits while 994 jousted for 2.68% of the benefits.