The Karnataka government on Monday agreed to implement internal reservation for Scheduled Caste communities, The Indian Express reported. To this end, a commission will be set up to compile the data, the state government said.
The decision came after the Supreme Court’s August 1 ruling that allowed states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure the less advantaged groups among them have preferential access to reserved seats in public employment and educational institution.
Following a Cabinet meeting on Monday, state Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil told reporters that the proposed one-man commission would be headed by a retired High Court judge. The panel will submit a report in three months.
The Congress government in the state will not issue notifications for fresh recruitment in government jobs till the report is submitted. “It [recruitment] will only start after the commission submits its report,” India Today quoted Patil as saying.
The new panel was set up as the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state had rejected the Justice AJ Sadashiva Commission report on internal reservations in 2022, The Indian Express quoted state Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa as saying.
“Right now, the census has no data on internal reservation,” he said, adding that the new commission would have to refer to the national census data or compile data on its own.
The state government will discuss the report with all 101 Scheduled Caste communities before implementing the reservations, Mahadevappa said. “They all want an internal reservation, provided it is based on empirical data,” he added.
Priyank Kharge, the state Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister, noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling had said that empirical data should be used while granting internal reservation.
The ministers added that the source of the data would be clarified after the terms of reference for the commission were issued, The Indian Express reported.
In its report submitted in 2012, the Sadashiva Commission had proposed dividing the 101 castes into four categories, each receiving 15% of the reservation.
Under this division, 6% would be reserved for the Scheduled Caste left, 5% for the Scheduled Caste right, 3% for the Bhovi, Lambani, Koracha and Korama communities, and 1% for other Scheduled Caste groups.
Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023, the state’s previous BJP government had announced 6% reservation to the Scheduled Caste left, 5.5% to the the Scheduled Caste right, and 4.5% to communities such as Banjaras and Bhovis, The Indian Express reported.
Other communities under the category were allocated a 1% quota.
However, members of the Lambani community had protested against this decision, alleging that the state government had implemented the recommendations of the Sadashiva Commission through a back channel.
Subsequently, the BJP government at the time set aside the plans, citing legal problems around the changes in the overall reservation system in the state, The Indian Express reported.
Karnataka’s announcement on Monday also came two weeks after Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that his state government would implement the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for providing reservations.
This made Haryana the first state to put into action the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In its verdict on August 1, a seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ruled that the sub-classification of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories was permissible for providing reservations in government jobs and education based on empirical data.
The court, in a 6:1 majority verdict, overruled the court’s 2004 judgement, which held that Scheduled Castes formed a homogenous group and hence could not be subdivided into categories.
Four of the seven judges also called for identifying the creamy layer among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories so that they could be removed from the reservation matrix.
The creamy layer seeks to exclude the wealthier and more advanced members within a group from the benefits of affirmative action. The application of the creamy layer, however, was not one of the questions before the bench, and the suggestions of the four judges lack legal enforceability.
Several states across the country saw protests by Dalit and Adivasi groups against the verdict. The Opposition parties also criticised it. BJP MPs from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities had also expressed concerns about the court’s observations.
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