New Delhi: The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday approved the ordinance on hiking the reservation for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
"Today my cabinet has taken an historic descision of approving the ordinance on hiking the reservation for my brothers and sisters from SC/ST community from 15% to 17% and 3% to 7%. This historic decision will bring light and shine into their lives and uplift them by providing adequate opportunity in education and employment," Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
It is to be noted that the hike will take the reservation tally in the southern state to 56 per cent, above the 50 per cent cap fixed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney judgement. Therefore, the government would have to recommend bringing the reservation hike under the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to give it legal protection in the days to come.
"Following the decision to enhance the SC/ST reservation, we introduced a bill to this effect before the cabinet, and it was decided to send it to the Governor to promulgate an ordinance," news agency PTI quoted Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy as saying after the cabinet meeting in Bengaluru.
"We had earlier felt that executive decision would be enough, but later realised that if it is questioned in court of law, it may lead to issues, so we have decided to bring in an ordinance," he added.
The minister further explained that earlier, there were only six castes in Karnataka under SC, to which 103 castes, nomads and slum-dwellers have been added now. Therefore, the population has enormously raised and as the Constitution calls for adequate representation, the state will have to give about 17 per cent reservation for SCs, and thus the decision to hike the quota was taken.