Karnataka Muslim Reservation Based Solely on Religion Not Only Unconstitutional But Also Against Social Justice and Secularism, Karnataka Govt Tells SC

Reservation solely on the basis of religion is unconstitutional since it not only violates the mandates of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Indian Constitution, but also militates against the principles of social justice and secularism, the Karnataka government has said in an affidavit, in an effort to defend its decision to scrap an almost three-decade-old four per cent reservation provided to Muslims in the ‘other backward classes’ (OBC) category in the state. The affidavit states: “The aim of reservation, as envisaged in the Constitution, is to promote social justice by providing affirmative action to those who have historically been marginalized and discriminated against in society. The same has been enshrined in Articles 14 to 16 of the Constitution of India...The backward classes have been referred to as a “collection of certain castes” by none less than Dr BR Ambedkar. The whole point being there were socially and educationally backward classes in society who have been historically deprived and discriminated against. The same cannot be equated with an entire religion.” This affidavit was submitted by the state of Karnataka in response to a petition challenging their decision to move Muslims from the OBC category, under which they used to enjoy four per cent reservation in public employment and educational institutions, to the ten per cent reservation pool for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the state, and equally redistribute the now freed-up seats to the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The petition is currently being heard by a bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna. At the outset, the state government questioned the maintainability of the petition on the ground that the petitioner did not first approach the Karnataka High Court, where a petition challenging the government orders (GO) passed in March was pending. Besides this, the government also disputed the locus standi of the petitioner, saying that they had “no locus to question the inclusion or grant of benefits to any other community more so those who were not conferred the benefits on the basis of religion”. Notably, the Karnataka government has informed the Supreme Court of India that while a ‘conscious’ decision has been taken to discontinue the policy of including the entire Muslim community in the OBC category, groups within the community that were found to be ‘backward’, such as the Pinjaras, Ladafs, and Mansooris, continue to enjoy the benefits of reservation, as they did under the earlier regime. Not only this, but the affidavit also points out that the initial inclusion of Muslims in the category of ‘other backward classes’ as early as in 1979 was contrary to the recommendations of the first state backward class commission constituted in 1972 by then-chief minister D Devaraj Urs and headed by LG Havanur The said inclusion has been continued subsequently “primarily on the ground of economic backwardness” even though the constitutional scheme at that stage did not contemplate reservations to economically weaker sections, the state government has argued. The Karnataka government has sought to defend its action by relying on the report of the Mandal Commission or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission, established in 1979 by the Janata Party government under the prime ministership of Morarji Desai. “The Mandal Commission clearly found that religion could not be the sole basis for reservation,” the affidavit states. It further adds: “The rationale behind the aforesaid report is that the entire religion or religious communities cannot be treated as a monolithic entity for the purposes of treservation. As such, there is no reservation given to the Muslim community on the basis of religion as a whole in the central list. Even throughout the country, except State of Kerala, there is no state that provides for reservation for the Muslim community as a whole. There are various communities from the Muslim religion that are included in the SEBC which also continues to be the case in Karnataka. As such, the same in itself shows that the reservation solely on the basis of religion is not the practice followed anywhere in the country except Kerala and in the State of Karnataka, till recently.” The state government has argued that the practice of granting reservation to the entire Muslim community in toto is violative of Article 14 since such a classification has no rational basis and is arbitrary and unreasonable. “Even otherwise, it would lead to further deprivations of the backward classes or groups within the Muslim community as the forward classes or groups would be in a position to garner the benefits under the police,” the government has submitted. Furthermore, as per Articles 15 and 16, the state was duty-bound to not discriminate only on the basis of religion, the affidavit states. While several rights and ...

Karnataka Muslim Reservation Based Solely on Religion Not Only Unconstitutional But Also Against Social Justice and Secularism, Karnataka Govt Tells SC

Awstika Das

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