BENGALURU: Fearing an immediate backlash from Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the bypolls to Davanagere South and Bagalkot constituencies, the Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to defer the special cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday, to resolve the contentious issue of internal reservation for SCs. But the process of recruitment of 56,342 vacancies in various government departments will continue, as informed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil.
The SC-Left Madiga community, which is pushing for internal reservation, is miffed. The SC-Right of Bhovi, Lambani, Koracha and Korama communities held a series of rallies in Bengaluru, demanding that vacancies be filled without applying internal 15 per cent quota. The Justice Nagmohan
Das Commission had recommended internal quota for 17 per cent, but cases were filed in court against it, and also total quota for SC/ST/OBCs reached 56 per cent, breaching the 50 per cent cap.
“It has been decided to hold a special cabinet meeting after the April 9 by-election. The Advocate-General has opined that internal reservation issue will violate the code of conduct, so the special meeting has been deferred. The next date will be fixed,” Patil informed.
“As of now, nothing is stalled. All processes will continue for decisions taken earlier, but the decision which was to be taken today or tomorrow has been postponed to after April 9. The process of collecting data and statistics is under way,” he clarified, when asked whether recruitment will be stalled. He maintained that Thursday’s cabinet meeting did not discuss the issue.
Sources told TNIE that ministers from SC communities— Dr HC Mahadevappa, KH Muniyappa, Dr G Parameshwara, Priyank Kharge, RB Thimmapur and Shivaraj Tangadagi —differed in their opinions, resulting in a heated debate. Following this, the CM decided to defer the cabinet meeting.
Other decisions
Post facto approval, three Bills were passed in the joint session of legislature.
The Karnataka State Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Teachers (Amendment) Bill), 2026, to mandate transfer of teachers shall first be applied to critical posts, and to prohibit transfer of teachers from teaching to non-teaching posts
The Karnataka Government Educational Institution Lands (Protection and Regularisation) Bill, 2026, to provide protection and regularisation of land, including donated, vested and used by government educational institutions continuously for 12 years, in favour of the State government
The Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to attract vehicles heading to neighbouring states for registration due to tax burden
Approval to consider 379 officers/employees of Water Resources department, who were appointed before 2003 and continued in the department without expressing opinion on which department they would join in the event of bifurcation of the department
Appoint retired district judge AG Gangadhar as Additional Controller (Inquiries) in Karnataka Lokayukta on contract basis
To pay outstanding bills of private hospitals amounting to Rs 23 crore from financial year 2015-16 to 2018-19 for carrying out 148 treatment procedures under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) scheme, and additional procedures