Will socio-edu survey report help breach 50% quota cap?

At a time when the Supreme Court and several High Courts have mandated strict compliance by the 50% quota cap, the findings of the Madhusudan Naik-led Backward Classes Commission’s socio-educational survey report will be crucial for the eventual legal fights to raise the bar beyond 50% in Karnataka. 

The state has 56% reservation (17% for Scheduled Castes, 7% for Scheduled Tribes and 32% for Other Backward Classes).

However, the 50% cap has compelled the state government to revert to its earlier matrix of 15% reservation for SCs and provide internal reservation for SCs as per the 5.25 - 5.25 - 4.5 matrix (3% for STs and 32% for OBCs).

In the Indra Sawhney case in 1992, the Supreme Court has stated that an increase in the reservation share beyond 50% requires empirical data.  

Against that backdrop, the data of the Naik Commission report could be crucial for the state government.

Though the report was initially expected to be submitted by December-end, it has been postponed multiple times. 

When contacted, Naik told DH that the submission may take another month. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has argued that the reservation cap should be increased to 75% to provide adequate representation to OBC communities.  

Recalibration

While the data is crucial, there are also concerns on whether the Supreme Court will accept the premise to increase the reservation, since similar attempts by the Bihar and Telangana governments have been struck down in recent years.

According to a section of experts, the 50% cap doesn’t set any bar on internal tweaking within the 50% quota.

Upholding this view, former member of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) K N Lingappa argued that the Constitution mandated providing reservation as per their population only to SCs and STs.

“The reservation as per population mandate is only for the SCs and STs and not for the OBCs. Even though the OBCs had 52% population, the Mandal commission recommended 27% reservation to them so as to not breach the 50% ceiling. Thus, till courts agree to increase the cap beyond 50%, it’s perfectly constitutional to temporarily rearrange the matrix to provide reservation as per population to SCs and STs by reducing the OBC share,” he added.

However, multiple bureaucrats told DH there hadn’t been any discussion at the government level on reducing the OBC share. 

One officer noted that such discussions could potentially gather steam after the BC commission submitted its report.

Breaching 50% only solution: Hariprasad

Veteran Congressman B K Hariprasad argued that the only solution to the quota conundrum was to breach the 50% cap set by the Supreme Court. 

He said the Karnataka Legislature must pass a resolution to increase reservation and add it to the 9th Schedule and send it to the Union government.

However, experts feel that the process of the legislature passing a resolution, and then the Parliament passing a constitutional amendment through a 2/3rd majority, is quite laborious and not realistic.