Supreme Court Agrees To List Plea Challenging Karnataka Government Order Scrapping 4% Reservation For Muslims Under OBC Category

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to list a petition seeking to challenge the decision of BJP-led Karnataka Government to scrap off the nearly three-decade-old 4% reservation provided to Muslims in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala.

At the outset, Senior Advocate Sibal stated that he had earlier mentioned the matter before a different bench but it was not taken up. CJI Chandrachud stated that the same was because all defects had not been cured. However, Sibal informed the bench that all the defects had been cured. CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"We will list it."

Earlier, the Karnataka Government decided to exclude Muslims from the OBC category and scrapped the 4% reservation given to them under Category 2B. The said reservations were distributed equally among the Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas at 2% each. The government also accorded internal reservation for 101 Scheduled Castes (SC). Muslims, who come under Category 2B were moved to the 10% EWS quota pool.