Karnataka polls: Congress’ 75 per cent quota promise to face legal hurdles, say experts

NEW DELHI, MAY 3:  As Congress promises to increase the reservation quota to 75 per cent in Karnataka in its election manifesto for Karnataka, legal experts have said that it is a debatable move as the Supreme Court is yet to give its final verdict on whether quotas can exceed the 50 per cent cap.

The Supreme Court has already stayed a Karnataka Government Order (GO) scrapping the 4 per cent reservation for Backward Class (BC) Muslims and distributed it equally to two dominant communities, Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

The manifesto, which was released by Congress on Tuesday proposed that it will increase the quota of SCs from 15 per cent to 17 and for STs from 3 per cent to 7 per cent.

It also said that it will raise the reservation for Lingayats and Vokkaligas and other communities taking the quota from 50 to 75 per cent. The party also promised to reinstate the reservation quota of 4 per cent to Muslims, which has been scrapped by the BJP government.

Legal experts said that in 2021 the Supreme Cout struck had down the Maharashtra government’s provision of providing a Maratha quota in excess of 50 per cent ceiling limit as unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court in its historic 1992 verdict had ruled that the upper limit for reservation in the country must not exceed 50 per cent.

While Congress said that it will invoke the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to increase the quota emulating the Tamil Nadu quota matrix, experts point out that the apex court is yet to give a final verdict on the Tamil Nadu quota which is at 69 per cent.

Speaking to this newspaper, Senior Supreme Court lawyer Vikas Singh said “Tamil Nadu case is pending before the SC. Even if political parties announce the increase in quotas, the judicial test will come later.”

“Though the President has given an accent to Tamil Nadu, it is still pending in SC,” said Singh.

The Ninth Schedule of the Constitution contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts. In 1993, the Tamil Nadu govt under then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa passed the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill to maintain the state’s reservation at 69 per cent.