New Delhi: Even though Union home minister Amit Shah asserted at a Telangana rally on April 23 that the BJP, if voted into power in that state, would scrap the quota for Muslims, the saffron party’s government in Karnataka has assured the Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 25, that it would not implement its decision to scrap reservation for the minority community.
On March 27, the Karnataka state government decided to scrap the 4% quota for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in government employment and education. Known as the 2B reservation, it was distributed among Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes instead.
On Tuesday, April 25, solicitor general Tushar Mehta once again assured the top court that the state government would not implement the order concerned until the matter is adjudicated by the court. “No appointment as per assurance by the Solicitor General would be made and no prejudice would be caused to any contention,” the bench noted in its order.
In the last hearing on April 18 also, Mehta had given a similar assurance before the court and sought more time on behalf of the state government for filing an affidavit.
Earlier, in a hearing held on April 13, the court had termed the move, prima facie, “based on fallacious assumption and was vitiated as it was based on an interim report of a Commission”.
The petitioners had claimed that Muslims had been considered backward in Karnataka since 1921 and there was no evidence to treat them differently as there had not been any progress in their social and economic status. The state government, through its order, had moved Muslims from the OBC category to the Economically Weaker Section – a move that the petitioners challenged.
The EWS category, which has a 10% quota, is reserved for upper castes.
The next hearing will take place on May 9.
While in the three hearings, the BJP-led Karnataka government has told the court that it would not implement its order of scrapping the Muslim reservation pending final judgement, the Union home minister, on April 23, had termed such a quota as ‘anti-constitutional in Telangana. Not only did he criticise the Telangana state government for this reservation but also vowed to end it if the BJP comes to power in the state.
“I am saying this here, when there is a BJP government here, we will end the anti-constitution Muslim reservation. This right is of Telangana’s SC, ST and OBC. They will get this right and Muslim reservation, we will end,” he had said.