No Review of Reserved Categories, Backwards Areas Until SEBCC is Reconstituted: Govt | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission’s mandate lapsed on December 17, 2024, and the government told the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that no fresh review of reserved categories or notified backward areas can be taken up until the commission is reconstituted, the Social Welfare Department said.

The reply, given in response to a starred question by Hon’ble MLA Mubarak Gul, stated that identification of backward areas is made on the basis of SEBCC recommendations and that the process is not static — villages may be included or excluded following periodic review. However, with the commission’s term expired, “any matter relating to further examination of aspects of reservation can be taken up only after the reconstitution of the Commission,” the department said.

Members had raised several concerns in the House: whether some notified backward areas and their adjacent peripheries with similar socio-economic conditions had been treated differently; whether areas earlier listed as backward continue to merit that status; and whether a comprehensive, time-bound review would be conducted to address anomalies and ensure equitable representation.

The government said that the mechanism for such reviews rests on the statutory commission. Until it is reconstituted, the Social Welfare Department said it lacks the institutional mandate to initiate a fresh, territory-wide reassessment of reservation categories and area-based classifications.