Karnataka cabinet gives nod for internal reservation within SC community, forms one-man commission to decide quota

The Karnataka cabinet gave approval for internal reservation within the Scheduled Caste (SC) community on Monday and decided to set up a one-man commission to make recommendations to help evolve a reservation matrix.

The decision comes following constant pressure from the marginalised SC (Left) community to provide the sub-classification to prevent dominant SC castes from cornering all the benefits.

While the state government's decision aligns with the Supreme Court's landmark judgement (dated August 1, 2024) that allows states to create sub-classifications within the SC reservation based on empirical data, the proposed Commission headed by a retired High Court judge will have little fresh (population) data to rely on, given that the latest census data is expected to be out only by 2026.

After the Justice A.J. Sadashiva Commission, in 2012, suggested a sub-quota by redistributing the 15 per cent SC reservation, the BJP government in 2023 not only enhanced the SC and ST reservation by two per cent each, but also came up with a reservation matrix within the SC community.

A subcommittee headed by then law minister J.C. Madhuswamy divided the SC community into four groups.

Among the 'untouchables', the SC (Left) - Madiga, Adi Dravida and Bambi would get 6 pc reservation and SC (Right) which includes Adi Karnataka Holeya and Chalavadi 5.5 pc. Among the 'touchables', the Banjara, Bhovi, Koracha and Korama would get 4.5 pc and Are Alemari and Alemari (nomads) 1 pc.

The BJP government's push for sub-quota had backfired and it lost the support of the dominant SC castes in the assembly polls.

Traditionally, the Congress enjoys the support of SC (Right) communities, whereas the saffron party is favoured by SC (Left) communities. This time, the Siddaramaiah government hurriedly announced its support to the sub-quota ahead of the three bypolls as Sandur and Shiggaon have sizeable populations of SC (Left) communities.

The government referring the contentious matter to a new Commission has drawn criticism from the opposition BJP, which accused the ruling party of delay tactics. "The Commission will be given three months to table the report. Till then, no fresh public recruitment will be carried out," said Law Minister H.K. Patil.

"This is a victory to 35 years of struggle. I urge the community to wait for three more months (to reap the benefits of sub-quota)," said Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa, who belongs to the SC (Left) community.

"None of us are opposed to internal reservation. The Supreme Court order mandates reservation should be based on empirical data (population data and assessment of backwardness of each caste within the SC community). As per the terms of reference, the Commission will explore if the caste census carried out by the state government would stand the scrutiny by law as we don't have a better and latest caste census to rely on," explained IT Minister Priyank Kharge, who belongs to the SC (Right) community.

Meanwhile, the BJP slammed the Congress's move saying that the Congress has promised internal reservation in its 2023 manifesto. But even after one-and-half years, it had not bothered to implement it.

"The Bommai government has made the sub-classification scientifically (based on Census 2011) and without compromising on social justice and the interest of any of the 101 SC castes. But the Congress spread false information that some castes would be dropped from the SC list to capture power in the state. The Congress is betraying the SC community by dilly-dallying on granting the sub-quota," said BJP veteran and Dalit leader Govind Karjol.