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Karnataka will join the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu and eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar in crossing the limit set on the extent of reservation by the apex court in the Indira Sawhney case
Reservation in Karnataka will go up from 49 per cent to nearly 70 per cent if the recommendations of the survey are accepted by the state cabinet. (PTI)
Karnataka is set to become the fourth state in the country to cross the 50 per cent ‘Lakshman Rekha’ set by the Supreme court for reservations if the caste census report is accepted by the state cabinet.
Karnataka will join the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu (69 per cent) and eastern states of Jharkhand (77 per cent) and Bihar (64 per cent) in crossing the limit set on the extent of reservation by the apex court in the Indira Sawhney case.
As per the socio-economic-educational survey, popularly known as the caste census conducted by the state backward classes commission, reservation in Karnataka will go up from 49 per cent to nearly 70 per cent if its recommendations are accepted by the state cabinet.
One of the major recommendations of the survey report has been that the 32 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (covering all the categories—1A, 1B, 2A, 2B,3A and3B) must be raised to 51 per cent.
The report justifies it by stating that the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had already been enhanced from 18 to 24 per cent. With this increase, the total percentage of reservation—32 per cent for OBCs and 24 per cent for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes—would go up to 56 per cent.
“In other words, the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ set by the Supreme court has already been breached. Therefore, the survey report has recommended a higher percentage of reservation for some of the categories,” a senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told CNN-News18.
The cabinet is scheduled to meet on May 2 to continue its discussions on the caste census report. The cabinet hit a roadblock because the survey showed a lower population for the two major caste groups of Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
Ministers belonging to e thtwo communities had taken serious exception to the reduced population at the specially called but inconclusive cabinet meeting on Thursday. The other objection that they had raised was that considerable sections of the population had been left out while conducting the door-to-door survey.
This is quite contrary to the contention of chief minister Siddaramaiah and law minister HK Patil that the survey had covered 94.17 per cent of the population as per the 2011 census report.
For the longest time, the Vokkaligas were estimated to be 14 per cent of the population, while the Lingayats constituted 17 per cent. But the caste survey report has said Vokkaligas’ population was 10.3 per cent, while that of Lingayats was 11 per cent.
According to the survey report, the Vokkaligas have a population of 72,99,577. The Lingayats, on the other hand, number 81,37,536 in a population of 5,98,14,942 when the survey was conducted in 2015. The survey was ordered by Siddaramaiah when he was chief minister during his first term—2013-18.
The survey report has also moved up the Kurubas, the largest OBC community in the state, to Category 1B from 2A. The Kurubas (to which Siddaramaiah belongs) have been clubbed with smaller backward communities. The total population in this category is listed as 73,92,313. Of this, the Kurubas constitute about 44 lakh.
As per the categorisation, Category 1A consists of nomadic and non-nomadic castes, whose number totals to 34,96, 638. In terms of reservation, Category 1A and 1B had been allocated four per cent reservation. But this has been enhanced now to six per cent for 1A and 12 per cent for 1B. However, the report has applied the creamy layer concept for Category 1 and 2 for the first time. The creamy layer norm was already applicable to Category 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B.
Similarly, for category 2A that consists of 102 backward castes, the population has been recorded as 77,78,209 lakh. In this category, the percentage of reservation has been reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. In Category 2B, which consists of Muslims with 99 sub-castes, the population has been recorded at 75,25,880 and the percentage of reservation has been enhanced from four per cent to eight per cent.
Contrary to the controversy over Muslims getting double the reservation from four to eight per cent, the survey report has also provided a similar increase in the reservation percentage from four per cent to seven per cent for the Vokkaligas, which is the sole community in Category 3A. In the case of the LIngayats in Category 3B, the percentage of reservation has been enhanced from five per cent to eight per cent.
If the new category of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of 10 per cent is added to the overall reservation for OBCs (51 per cent), the total reservation, along with the 24 per cent for SCs and STs, will take reservation to 85 per cent.
This means that if the Karnataka cabinet accepts the recommendation in toto, it will have to send its proposal to the Union government which, in turn, will have to amend the 9th schedule of the Constitution to make it possible for states to implement reservation policies in which the number exceeds the 50 per cent mark.
Senior minister in the government Ramalinga Reddy said the chief minister has asked the cabinet to give their objections in writing. However, another senior minister on condition of anonymity, said while the reservation slab has been breached long again by other states, it needs to be known as to whether it would stand the test of law in court.
