The Karnataka government has announced an increase in reservation by 2% and 4% respectively for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Following an all-party meeting held on Friday, October 7, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that reservation will be hiked by 2% for SC and by 4% for ST categories. The decision was based on the recommendations made in the Justice HN Nagamohan Das Commission report, which suggested raising the quotas for SCs from the present 15% to 17% and from the present 3% to 7% for STs.
Chief Minister Bommai made an announcement to this effect after chairing an all-party meeting that was attended by Congress and JD(S) leaders. Noting that it was a "long-standing and a just demand" from the communities that reservation should be based on population, he said, "The Nagamohan Das Commission's recommendations were discussed at the all-party meeting today and has been approved. Before that, it was discussed within our party (BJP) where it was decided to keep up our commitment to the welfare of SC/STs."
A special cabinet meeting will be held on Saturday, October 8 to approve the hike in reservation, and a discussion is also expected to be held on the other recommendations made in Justice Nagamohan Das Commission report. When asked about internal reservations for the many communities that make up these groups, CM Bommai responded that the matter will be decided after consulting with experts and leaders of all the parties.
The opposition parties, especially the Congress had been attacking the BJP-led government for the delay in implementation. The Commission had given its recommendations to the government in July 2020. However, following a couple of judgments from the Supreme Court regarding reservation, the government constituted a three-member committee headed by Justice Subhash B Adi on implementation of the recommendations. This committee too had submitted its report subsequently. “After studying both the reports, the government wanted to take everyone into confidence before arriving at any decision on a matter relating to law and Constitution and hence the all-party meeting was called today,” Bommai said.
At present, Karnataka provides 32% reservation for OBCs, 15% for SCs, and 3% for STs, totalling 50%. The only way for Karnataka to hike the SC/ST quota is to increase the reservation using the provisions available under Schedule 9 of the Constitution. Schedule 9 contains a list of central and state laws which are protected from judicial review. Even though the majority of the laws covered by the Schedule 9 have to do with agriculture or land, there are other subjects on the list as well, such as reservations. Tamil Nadu has invoked Schedule 9 to adopt 69% reservation in the state. The Nagamohan Das Commission had recommended to the government that it could exceed the 50% cap on reservations in exceptional circumstances.
Noting that the courts will take exception if the reservation exceeds 50%, Law Minister JC Madhuswamy said, “There is a Supreme Court order saying reservation in the states should not exceed 50%, but some states have exceeded the ceiling and there is a provision to do it under special circumstances. We will introduce it under Schedule 9 because it has judicial immunity. Tamil Nadu did it under Schedule 9 to increase reservations to 69%. We will recommend to the Union government to amend the Constitution.”
Responding to a question, the Minister said that hiking the SC/ST quota and exceeding 50% would eat into the general category space to some extent. Reservation in Karnataka is already on the borderline, and it will be difficult to rejig quotas within the 50%, he said. "If we have to do it, we will have to reduce the OBC quota by six percentage points, which nobody will tolerate. So, to exceed 50%, it must be done via Schedule 9," he added.
Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, also another former CM and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy attended the all-party meeting. The decision is also being seen by some with a political prism with Assembly elections due in about six months. On October 7, various Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi urged the state government to implement the recommendations of the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission. Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets wrote in favour of the reservation and said that Congress has been demanding a hike in SC/ST reservations for a while now. "Earlier there were only six communities included under SC and ST. Now they have increased to 102 in SC and 52 communities in ST. Their population has also increased,” he said, while urging the BJP to take necessary steps to increase SC/ST reservation through ordinance and include it in Schedule 9.
Earlier in 2021, the Supreme Court struck down the Maharashtra law granting quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs, terming it as "unconstitutional" and held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50% reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict. The top court unanimously declined to refer the Mandal decision to a larger bench for review on whether the state might deviate from the 50% quota cap in exceptional cases. The 10% Economically Weaker Sections quota brought about by the Union government through 103rd amendment has also been challenged in the Supreme court.