HC for excluding 'politically advanced' from BC list

The Karnataka High Court on Monday asked the State government to consider excluding the ‘politically advanced’ Backward Classes from the reservation list.

The suggestion came from the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice A S Bopanna while hearing an appeal by the State Election Commission seeking advancement of the panchayat poll dates. The court sought to know whether politically better-off classes could be excluded from the reservation matrix to accommodate the politically backward among the Backward Classes.

“There are some castes which are not politically backward. Exclude them from the list and provide reservation for the castes which have so far no representation at all,” the Bench told the Advocate General who said such an exercise would be difficult at this stage.

SEC appeal

The SEC had filed a writ appeal seeking advancement of poll dates as the one suggested by the single judge overlaps with Census 2011. The judge, while disposing of a petition challenging the reservation ordinance, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the state government for identification of backward among the Backward Classes for reservation.

The Court said the government should consider such representations within two weeks and initiate action. It directed commencement of the election process by December 10 and complete it within a month.

The SEC submitted it had decided to declare elections on November 22, 2010, and complete the process by December 20, 2010.

Census operations

Counsel for petitioners K N Panindra submitted that the census operations were scheduled between December 15 and March 2011. The chief secretary has issued specific directions that no functions or elections be held during this period.

Panindra said the SEC had spent crores of rupees for the poll by way of purchasing EVMs and training manpower, and requested the court not to alter the calender of events.

Submitting that there weren’t enough time and staff to follow the exercise suggested by the single judge on identifying the backward among the Backward Classes, he prayed the court that the calendar of events — to be announced shortly — be left undisturbed and the reservation be provided for during the next poll.

Earlier, senior counsel Ravi Varma Kumar appearing for the respondents said Backward Classes constituted about 70 percent of the total population and about 20 percent of them had no representation at all. He dismissed the submission of the SEC that reservation cannot provided within stipulated time of two weeks. The matter was adjourned.