New Delhi: Manish Tewari, Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib, has written to Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, requesting that Mazhabi Sikhs and Balmikis be given reservation.
"I am requesting Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to kindly ensure that the 50 percent reservation granted to Mazhabi Sikhs and Balmikis out of 22.5 percent way back in 1975 is upheld when the matter comes up before a 7 or 9-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court when constituted shortly," Tewari wrote in a three-page letter dated November 8. The case is around a 1975 Punjab government circular that states that Mazhabi Sikhs and Balmikis shall be given 50 percent quota out of the 22.5 percent reserved category of the SC.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court threw down the circular in 2006, and the Supreme Court dismissed an SLP in 2008. The case is currently pending in the Supreme Court's bigger bench.
Because Channi belongs to the Scheduled Caste, the Congress MP wants the situation to be handled seriously. The state has the country's greatest population of Scheduled Castes. However, Tewari's raising the matter has political ramifications ahead of the Punjab elections, when the Congress is hoping to gain votes among Dalit voters. On the BSF problem and the expulsion of the state's Advocate General, the state's Congress MP has been critical of the new Chief Minister.
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