Internal quota among SCs: One man commission will be formed soon, says Karnataka CM

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said a one man commission will soon be formed to gather empirical data for providing internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC).

“We have decided regarding internal reservation at the cabinet yesterday. In principle we have agreed to provide internal reservation. A one man commission of a retired High Court judge will be formed, he will have to submit the report in three months,” Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said: “a few are of the opinion that there is no empirical data.” A section of SCs, especially ‘SC Left’, have been demanding internal reservation alleging that only a few influential sub-castes were taking away a majority of the benefits while many communities were still marginalised.

Just ahead of the Assembly polls, the previous BJP government’s cabinet had taken a decision on internal reservation, by recommending to the central government a six per cent internal quota for SC (Left), 5.5 per cent for SC (Right), 4.5 per cent for “touchables” (Banjara, Bhovi, Korcha, Kuruma etc) and one per cent for others.

The cabinet’s decision on Monday was in the backdrop of a landmark verdict delivered by the Supreme Court on August 1, which held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward.

The Chief Minister said: “For gathering the empirical data we will immediately form a commission, and get a report in three months. The commission will be given terms of reference. Other than recruitments for which notifications have already been issued, for the rest of the recruitments notifications will not be issued (till the internal reservation is provided),” he said.

A seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, by a majority of 6:1, set aside the apex court’s five-judge bench verdict of 2004 in the E V Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case which had held that no sub-classification of SCs can be allowed as they are a homogeneous class in themselves.