The single-member commission headed by H.N. Nagamohan Das, retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, constituted by the Karnataka government to make recommendations on internal reservation for various sub-castes of Scheduled Castes (SC), is yet to submit its report. Meanwhile, the State government has stopped recruitments in various departments until the report is submitted, leading to disgruntlement among job aspirants.
Various Dalit organisations and job aspirants have urged the State government to expedite the process and start recruitments.
Requests for filling posts
As many as seven government departments have submitted requests to the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) and more than five departments to the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) to fill vacant posts. Earlier, the Home Minister had written to the Chief Minister requesting exemption from internal reservation, saying that there were vacant posts of around 600 sub-inspectors and around 12,000 constables which need to be filled urgently.
The commission was set up on November 12, 2024, to obtain empirical data on the representation of people belonging to various sub-castes of the SCs in education and government services in the State and submit a report with appropriate recommendations for classifying internal reservation. The term of the government was to end in two months. However, terms of reference for the commission were published only on December 3, 2024. The commission has not submitted the report till date.
Start process
Manoj Kumar, a job aspirant from Bengaluru, suggested that the government start the recruitment process, pending submission of the commission report. “Process can begin since internal reservation will be applicable only to the sub-castes of the SC community and there will be no change in the overall reservation for SCs. Therefore, with some conditions, the government should start the process right away,” he demanded, adding that it takes at least eight to 10 months for the long-winded recruitment process, starting with issuing of notification.
Concurring with this, a KPSC official said: “If the internal reservation report is submitted within that time frame, posts can be distributed as per the recommendations of the report.”
Legal hurdles likely
However, others warned that starting the process can lead to legal complications. “The number of posts reserved for categories is clearly stated in the recruitment notification of any department. If an attempt is made to fill the posts without classify internal reservation, there will be legal complications. Therefore, it cannot start without submission of report,” argued Venugopal Maurya, president, Democratic Dalit Students Federation, Bengaluru.
“The Congress government in Telangana has already announced internal reservation. We welcome that the Nagamohan Das-headed Commission was formed. But submission is delayed, which will in turn delay the implementation of internal reservation. Therefore, the commission should submit its report to the government at the earliest,” urged Basavaraj Kautal, State convener of the Scheduled Castes Alliance for Social Justice, State Committee.
Report to be submitted soon
Speaking to The Hindu, retired judge of the Karnataka High Court H.N. Nagamohan Das said: “On January 1, we commenced full functioning of our office and immediately published the notification in leading newspapers and invited the petitions from the public in this regard. Up to January 31, 2025, we have received hundreds of petitions through online and some through post, courier and some directly from the public to our office. I have conducted meetings and discussions with more than 170 delegations from across the State and gone through many documents. With few research assistants, the preparation of the report is going on. It will be submitted to the government soon.”
Published - February 08, 2025 07:59 pm IST
