BENGALURU: With just five months to go for the announcement of assembly elections in Karnataka, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s cabinet on Thursday decided to promulgate an ordinance increasing the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) reservation in the state.
The ordinance, once promulgated after the Governor’s assent, will increase reservations for SCs from 15 to 17 per cent and for STs from 3 to 7 per cent. “Following the decision to enhance the SC/ST reservation, we introduced a bill to this effect before the cabinet, and it was decided to send it to the Governor to promulgate an ordinance,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said after the cabinet meeting.
Explaining the need to hike the reservation, Madhuswamy said there were only six castes in Karnataka under Scheduled Castes previously and an additional 103 castes and nomads and slum-dwellers were added and hence the hike in reservation was necessary to accommodate the increased numbers.
Govt for quota hike under 9th Schedule
As for Scheduled Tribes, due to the inclusion of communities like Valmiki Nayakas, their numbers have increased and hence the hike in quota. This will, however, take the reservation tally in Karnataka to 56 per cent, above the 50 per cent cap fixed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney judgement.
Hence the government would recommend bringing the quota hike under the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to give it legal protection. Madhuswamy said the government had earlier decided to issue an executive order hiking the quota but decided against it as it could be easily challenged in courts.