In a significant decision, the Bangladesh Supreme Court has scrapped most of the quotas in govt jobs amid violent protests against the reservations for grandchildren of freedom fighters. The entire country is burning as students are protesting against a recent High Court order restoring the 30% quota in govt jobs for children and grandchildren of independence war veterans.
Notably, over 130 people have died in violent protests, colleges and universities have shut down, and internet services have been mostly suspended due to the protests. The protests started after the High Court on 5 June reinstated the 30% which was abolished by the govt in 2018. The HC had said that the circular abolishing reservation for the descendants of freedom fighters in class 1 and 2 jobs was illegal.
This led to massive protests by students, as this left only 44% of jobs in the unreserved category. Following this, the Bangladesh govt appealed against the High Court order in the Supreme Court, and now the Supreme Court has reportedly abolished most of the reservation, keeping only 7%.
The Supreme Court on Sunday agreed with the government’s petition and ruled that the High Court order was illegal, as per Attorney General AM Amin Uddin. As per the apex court order, now there will be 5% reservation for children of independence war veterans, and there will be only a 2% reservation for other categories.
This means, 93% of the govt jobs will be filled up based on merit, not based on quota. After the HC verdict, 56% of jobs were reserved, which included disabled individuals (1%), indigenous communities (5%), women (10%), people from underdeveloped districts (10%) and families of the freedom fighters of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War (30%).
This means the Supreme Court not only reduced the 30% quota for families of the freedom fighters to 5%, but the 26% reservation in the other 4 categories has been reduced to just 2%. After this verdict, the top court urged student protesters to return to their classes.
