Give Backward Class status to Kodava community, Karnataka High Court tells state government

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to accept the recommendation of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes extending backward caste status to Kodavas. The court quashed two government orders, in 2015 and in September 2021, rejecting the recommendations of the Commission.

The petition was filed by Codava National Council. The court noted that the recommendation was made after thorough investigation by the expert statutory body twice, first in 2005 and then in 2010. The purpose of the recommendation was to enable the members of the community to avail benefits of reservation under category 3-A.

The petitioner’s counsel cited section 9(2) of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995, saying the advice of the commission shall ordinarily be binding on the government. The government advocate said that since the provision uses the word “ordinarily”, it is open to the government to accept the advice or not.

“In justifiable cases, that the government may not accept the advice, is also true; however, for not accepting, it has to offer cogent and compelling reasons; otherwise, as a norm, advice has to be accepted,” Justice Krishna S Dixit said adding that an argument to the contrary cannot be sustained without violating the policy content and principal object of the Act.

The court also noted that there was a direction issued earlier by the HC in this regard. “Government cannot treat advice of a Commission of this stature as being susceptible to the views of another unknown authority; ours is a ‘welfare state’ and not the East India Company; what bewilders this court is the reiteration of the same stand with the duplication of the text of the order, despite a direction issued by a co-ordinate bench,” it said. The government has been directed to file a compliance report to the Registrar General within three months, failing which it has warned of heavy costs.

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