Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 13: The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised the Karnataka government’s decision to scrap a four per cent quota for Muslims in government jobs and education, and divide the same among two dominant Hindu communities just ahead of the state Assembly elections due on May 10.
The court which said the move appeared to be on a “highly shaky ground” and “flawed,” recorded in its order an oral assurance given by Karnataka that the government order of March 27 would not be implemented and no admission or appointments in jobs would be given till the next date of hearing on April 18. The state government through its order on March 27 had divided the four per cent reservation, earlier granted to OBC Muslims, to the Vokkaligas and Lingayats in the state.
A Bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna also issued notice to the State, represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, and representatives of the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi. Kapil Sibal appeared in a separate petition which was mentioned for urgent hearing in the morning before the Chief Justice of India. The petition was tagged and would be heard along with the current petition by Justice Joseph’s Bench on April 18.
Taking up a batch of petitions against the decision by several Muslim groups and individuals, the court questioned the rationale behind the step which was announced on March 24, just weeks before the state assembly elections.
The petitioners argued that the Karnataka government had violated the constitutional principles of equality and secularism by discriminating against Muslims, who constitute about 13 per cent of the state’s population. They also claimed that the government had not conducted any study or collected any empirical data to justify its decision.
The Karnataka government, led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, defended its decision by saying that it was based on the recommendations of a commission that had examined the socio-economic status of various communities in the state.
The government also said it had taken into account the historical and cultural factors that made Vokkaligas and Lingayats, who together account for about 40 per cent of the state’s population, deserving of higher reservations.
Vokkaligas and Lingayats are politically influential communities that have traditionally supported different parties in Karnataka. The BJP, which came to power in 2019 after toppling a coalition government of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), has been trying to woo both communities ahead of the elections.
The court, however, expressed doubts over the validity of the commission’s report and asked the government to produce more evidence to support its decision. The court also asked the government to explain how it had arrived at the four per cent figure for Muslims, which was introduced by a previous Congress government in 2013.
The court also noted that the Karnataka government’s decision had exceeded the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment in 1992. The court said any breach of this limit would require extraordinary circumstances and exceptional reasons.
The court adjourned the hearing until April 18 and asked the Karnataka government and the representatives of Vokkaligas and Lingayats to file their responses to the petitions. The government agreed not to make any appointments or admissions based on its decision until then.
The petition challenging the order was filed by L. Ghulam Rasool, represented by senior advocates Dushyant Dave, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Kumar Dushyant Singh, who argued that the reservation benefits given to poor Muslims in the State have been taken away in one stroke ahead of the State Assembly elections due soon.
The petition argued that the Muslim community in Karnataka has been excluded from the State list of Other Backward Classes for the purposes of reservations under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, and has instead been transferred to the list of communities eligible to claim reservation in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
“The quota of 4% assigned to the Muslim community as a backward class under category II(b) has been allocated to the communities in categories II(c) and II(d) (2% each), in addition to the quota that was already available to them when they were placed in category III(a) and III(b) (4% and 5% respectively),” the petition said.
The net outcome of the March 27 order was that the Muslim community was not entitled to any reservation in the State list as a backward class, while the communities that were earlier in categories III(a) and III(b) are now entitled to reservation to the extent of 6% and 7% as part of categories II(c) and II(d) respectively, it contended.
Notably, the only group featuring within category II (b) of the list of backward classes as per this order was ‘Muslim’. It is also pertinent to note that Vokkaliga castes and the Lingayat castes formed part of Categories III (a) and III (b) respectively. Dave argued that the exclusion of the Muslim community from the list of backward classes in Karnataka was unlawful and liable to be set aside as the community was consistently treated as a socially and educationally backward class in the State of Karnataka since 1921.
“There is no quantifiable data to suggest that the community is now socially and educationally advanced,” he argued. “The decision to exclude the Muslim community is ultra vires Article 342A(3) (socially and educationally backward classes) read with the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995 as it is not based on any report or advice of the Backward Classes Commission,” the petition said.