Panchamasalis quota: Karnataka Govt to reply SC on March 23

Law Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said the state government would convey to the Supreme Court its stand on exceeding the 50% cap on reservation on March 23.

Bommai chaired a meeting with legal experts where they discussed various aspects, modalities and implications of this issue.

Early this week, while making a statement on this in the Legislative Assembly, Bommai said it was “inevitable” to breach the 50% cap on quota if demands made by various caste groups are to be fulfilled.

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“The Supreme Court, while referring Maharashtra’s Maratha reservation issue to a larger bench, has posed six questions to all the states and has sought opinions. We have to submit our response on March 23. We will prepare a draft and send it to the experts for vetting,” Bommai said after the meeting.

Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes chairperson Jayaprakash Hegde, advocate general Prabhuling Navadgi, former advocate generals Ravivarma Kumar, Uday Holla, Madhusudhan Naik among others attended the meeting.

“It was a significant meeting,” Bommai said. “We discussed the Indira Sawhney judgement in which the Supreme Court capped the reservations at 50%. Should we increase this or not? Will the state’s powers to amend laws in this regard be curtailed or not? We discussed all this,” he said.

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The state government, Bommai asserted, was committed to meet the aspirations of all communities. “We want to safeguard the interests of SC, ST and OBC while also protecting our Constitutional rights.”

Bommai also pointed out that Karnataka was a progressive state on the reservation front. “Before the Indira Sawhney judgement and before independence, there was reservation here during the Maharaja rule. Before the Mandal Commission, we had a backward classes commission here,” he said.

The state government is under pressure to fulfil reservation demands made by various communities: the SCs have demanded an increase in their state quota from 15% to 17% and the STs from 3% to 7.5%. The Kurubas want to be included under ST whereas the Panchamasalis, a sub-sect of the Veerashaiva-Lingayats, want Category 2A reservation.

Earlier in the day, Bommai said he would reach out to BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal with the hope of convincing him to drop his plan to protest in the Assembly, which resumes its session Monday. Yatnal has threatened to protest if the government failed to make its stand clear on whether or not the Panchamasali sub-sect will be put under Category 2A.