The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Karnataka government and others on a plea related to reserving 33 per cent seats for Other Backward Classes in BBMP wards.
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and J B Pardiwala sought a response from the state government and the State Election Commission.
The court put the matter for consideration on Thursday.
The Karnataka High Court had in October quashed the state government's decision to fix 33 per cent quota for OBC in 243 wards of the municipal corporation of Bengaluru.
The decision was based on “imaginary data” and not through a scientific exercise, the High Court had said while quashing the August 16 notification of the civic body quota matrix.
The government 's decision has come on a recommendation made by a Commission headed by former Karnataka High Court's judge Justice Bhaktavatsala.
The High Court also found that the notification issued by the state government providing reservation for backward classes on the basis of the report submitted by the commission of enquiry is contrary to the triple test set down by the Supreme Court.
The term of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has ended on September 10, 2019.
A new law was passed by the state Assembly in 2020, which came into effect in January, 2021, increasing the number of wards in the city corporation from 198 to 243 wards.
In a decision in May this year, the top court had referring to the Constitution Bench decision in 'K Krishna Murthy (Dr) and Ors v Union of India & Anr' (2010), to hold that "triple test conditions" have to be fulfilled before providing reservations for the OBCs.
The conditions are to set up a dedicated commission to collect empirical data on backwardness, specify the proportion of reservation required in local body in light of recommendations of the Commission, and such reservation not to exceed aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together, it had said.
(Published 09 December 2022, 17:23 IST)
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