Jabalpur, Aug 9 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court issued notice to the state government on Friday over a petition challenging reservation exceeding the Supreme Court's 50 per cent cap.

Four job seekers belonging to the general category, who had filed the petition, challenged the overall reservation in Madhya Pradesh which has gone up to 63 per cent, despite the 50 per cent ceiling imposed by the apex court, petitioners' counsel Aditya Sanghi told PTI.

"The reservation crossed the 50 per cent cap after the state government raised the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota from 14 per cent to 27 per cent," he said.

The counsel said the state government had issued a notification to this effect on July 17 this year.

A division bench of the high court comprising justices J K Maheshwari and Anjuli Palo issued the notices to the MP Public Service Commission, the state general administration and the Home Department, returnable within three weeks, during preliminary hearing of the petition, the counsel said.

This provision of quota exceeding 50 per cent is ultra vires to Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India, Sanghi said.

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