BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has decided to bring in a law for effective implementation of the internal quota for Scheduled Castes. It comes in the wake of the Karnataka High Court issuing an interim order restraining the government from making civil service appointments based on quota matrix for SCs. It has now been decided to bring in a bill, which will be tabled at Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
SC nomadic community members had filed a petition with the HC as they are not being accorded 1 per cent separate quota, as recommended by the Das Commission; the case is coming up for hearing on November 13.
Siddaramaiah chaired a meeting with Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil, SC community ministers Dr HC Mahadevappa, KH Muniyappa, BR Thimmapur, Dr G Parameshwara and Priyank Kharge on Wednesday in this regard.
Following the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission report, and a subsequent cabinet decision, the government had issued an order on August 25, 2025, on implementing internal quota by allotting 6 per cent each to SC Left (A group) and SC Right (B group), and 5 per cent to Bhovi, Lambani, Koracha, Korama and nomadic SC communities, out of 17 per cent SC quota.
“As the order has already been issued, we discussed steps to implement internal reservation. There needs to be a law to ensure adequate representation and justice. Already, Law and Social Welfare departments have done a lot of exercises and prepared to table the draft bill before the cabinet,” HK Patil told reporters at Vidhana Soudha after the meeting.
At the meeting, measures to implement Cabinet decisions on internal reservation were discussed. The CM said all reports regarding implementation of the roster should be checked, and instructed that there is no injustice for any caste. It also discussed the issue of caste certificates for SC communities by recognising their original castes.
After clearing restrictions on recruitment, the age limit of candidates has been increased for one term, and the recruitment notification has already been issued to KEA.
Steps on implementing the Act as per Supreme Court directives on internal reservation, were also discussed. Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh was also present.
CM calls meetings
With a section of SC Left community members planning to go to Bihar and rake up the issue during the assembly polls there to embarrass the Congress, Siddaramaiah has called for an emergency meeting on Thursday.
He has called SC nomadic communities’ members for a meeting on Friday to discuss their issue as they had staged a ten-day dharna outside the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) office in New Delhi, demanding 1 per cent separate quota.
