The Karnataka government on Tuesday sought more time to file its response in the Supreme Court to a petition challenging the State’s move to scrap the 4% OBC quota for Muslims and divide it between the Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes ahead of the Assembly election.
In the last hearing, the court had orally said that it prima facie found that the State’s action was based on “absolutely fallacious assumptions”.
A Bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna adjourned the case to April 25 after Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for Karnataka, said they would need the weekend to finalise the response.
On April 13, Justice Joseph pointed out that Muslims, for a very long period, were treated as a “more backward” community.
“They were sandwiched somewhere between the ‘most backward’ and ‘backward’ communities. Suddenly you have taken reservation benefits away from them… I have to speak my mind here, so that you can respond… What strikes me as a student of law is that the order is based on absolutely fallacious assumptions,” Justice Joseph orally observed.
The court finally recorded in its judicial order on April 13 an oral assurance given by the State that “no appointment or admission is going to take place till April 18”, which was the next date of hearing. The court then gave the State three days to file its counter affidavit.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for petitioner L. Ghulam Rasool, submitted that the State had removed Muslims from the backward class list and included them under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category without any empirical data collected or study done to support the move. The March 27 government order to scrap the Muslim quota in the State was based on an “interim” report from the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission.
He submitted that the inclusion of Muslim community in the EWS list illegally implied that the community was not socially and educationally backward. “After 50 years, they removed the reservation for Muslims overnight and gave it to somebody else. This was done just two days before the State Assembly elections were announced. You want to favour Vokkaligas and Lingayats, do that. But don’t take away reservations given to Muslims... They don’t want to displease others, but we are dispensable,” Mr. Dave submitted.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, also for the petitioner, said reports dating back from 1995 concluded that Muslims had the highest rate of illiteracy in the State and the community saw the highest dropouts from school.
Advocate Ravivarma Kumar, for the petitioner side, added that other minority communities, including Christians, Buddhists and Jains, continued to be on the backward classes list. “All except Muslims,” he said.
He said the State had no power to transfer the community from socially and backward class category to the EWS category.
Published - April 18, 2023 12:14 pm IST
