- Karnataka HC struck down SC-ST reservation Act 2022.
- Law breached Supreme Court's 50% reservation ceiling.
- Called unconstitutional, violating Articles 14 and 15.
In a major setback to the Karnataka government, the state high court on Monday struck down the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act 2022, calling it unconstitutional as it breached the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
The law had raised the reservation limit for SCs from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for STs from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. A bench led by Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and including Justice KS Hemlekha held that Section 3 of the 2022 Act, by increasing the quota beyond 50 per cent, violates Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.
The court said, "Section 3 of the Act, insofar as it takes the total reservation beyond the limit of 50 per cent, is struck down as it violates Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution."
The court also struck down Section 4 of the Act, citing violations of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. This section provided for greater reservations for SCs and STs in state government jobs.
Notably, the 50 per cent ceiling was fixed by the top court in the 1992 case of Indira Sawhney vs Union of India and was upheld in several subsequent judgments.
A petition was filed in the court
The High Court delivered the verdict on two petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 2022 Act. The pleas emphasised the increase in total reservation for SCs, STs and Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) from 50 per cent to 56 per cent in the concerned law.
One of the petitions was filed by Mahendra Kumar Mitra, state president of the Dr Ambedkar Scheduled Castes Federation. The second petition was filed by Sagar HR, Prajwal Kumar D, and Purushottam Gowda GM. All three are civil engineering graduates and had applied for the position of Assistant Engineer (Civil) with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
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The Act, passed during the BJP government led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, received the Governor's assent on January 11, 2023, and was published in the Karnataka Gazette on January 12, 2023. The Act was enacted based on the recommendations and reports on representation of SCs and STs, including those of the Justice (Retd.) Nagamohan Das Commission and the committee headed by former High Court judge Justice Subhash B Adi.