Internal quota among SCs: One man commission will be formed soon, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said a one man commission will soon be formed to gather empirical data for providing internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC).

"We have decided regarding internal reservation at the cabinet yesterday. In principle we have agreed to provide internal reservation. A one man commission of a retired High Court judge will be formed, he will have to submit the report in three months," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said: "A few are of the opinion that there is no empirical data."

A section of SCs, especially 'SC Left', have been demanding internal reservation alleging that only a few influential sub-castes were taking away a majority of the benefits while many communities were still marginalised.

Just ahead of the Assembly polls, the previous BJP government's cabinet had taken a decision on internal reservation, by recommending to the central government a six per cent internal quota for SC (Left), 5.5 per cent for SC (Right), 4.5 per cent for "touchables" (Banjara, Bhovi, Korcha, Kuruma etc) and one per cent for others.

The cabinet's decision on Monday was in the backdrop of a landmark verdict delivered by the Supreme Court on August 1, which held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward.

The Chief Minister said: "For gathering the empirical data we will immediately form a commission, and get a report in three months. The commission will be given terms of reference. Other than recruitments for which notifications have already been issued, for the rest of the recruitments notifications will not be issued (till the internal reservation is provided)," he said.

A seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, by a majority of 6:1, set aside the apex court's five-judge bench verdict of 2004 in the E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case which had held that no sub-classification of SCs can be allowed as they are a homogeneous class in themselves.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said, Congress is always in favour of social justice and, in line with it, the government has taken the decision on internal reservation. "....the report will come in three months."

State BJP president B Y Vijayendra earlier in the day said that the Congress government and the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were not honest on internal reservation among SCs and were only trying to use the issue for politics ahead of bypolls for three Assembly segments.

"If at all Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was serious about internal reservation, also on the Kantharaj report (on Socio-Economic and Education Survey, popularly known as the caste census) he would have taken action long back, but Siddaramaiah and Congress party only believe in taking political advantage and creating more confusion on this particular issue," Vijayendra said.

Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur Assembly segments are going for bypolls on November 13.

The BJP had recently urged the Congress government to implement the internal reservation as recommended by the previous BJP government.