After a marathon particular Cupboard assembly on Tuesday evening, the Congress authorities in Karnataka arrived at a brand new components to supply inner reservations for the Scheduled Caste (SC) group in jobs and schooling throughout the 17 per cent quota obtainable to the 101 castes that fall beneath the class within the state.
The Cupboard assembly headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah determined to uphold the advice of the Justice (retired) H N Nagamohan Das Fee to supply six per cent reservation to probably the most backward SCs categorised because the Dalit Left and comprising teams thought-about ‘untouchables’, just like the Madigas.
Nevertheless, the Cupboard rejigged the quotas advisable for the Dalit Proper group comprising communities just like the Holeyas, who’re extra socially accepted, from the 5 per cent advisable by the Fee to 6 per cent.
It has additionally achieved away with three sub-groups of ‘touchable’ castes and others, indicated by the Fee, and merged them with the ‘touchable’ group with 5 per cent quota.
The 6:6:5 components for the 17 per cent reservation is anticipated to be formally introduced by Siddaramaiah on Wednesday in the course of the ongoing Monsoon Session of the state legislature. The Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO) confirmed the brand new components for inner quotas for SCs.
On Tuesday evening, Siddaramaiah was felicitated by Dalit Left teams for the Cupboard determination. That they had been protesting over the past week searching for the implementation of the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee report.
“There can be a revolution if the interior quotas are usually not applied. The federal government has to provide you with some components that’s acceptable to all,” H Anjaneya, former minister and Dalit Left group chief, stated on Tuesday forward of the Cupboard assembly.
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The Congress celebration had promised to supply inner quotas for the SC group forward of the 2023 state polls after Siddaramaiah had hesitated to implement inner quotas throughout his first tenure (2013-2018).
The interior quota formulation, the place the Dalit Left group received a bigger share of the 17 per cent reservation, was opposed by politically stronger teams within the Congress, just like the Dalit Proper group which has distinguished leaders like All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge and state House Minister G Parameshwara. The touchable group has additionally opposed inner quotas.
The delay in implementation of the interior quota system for Dalits had led to a freeze in authorities recruitments in Karnataka since October 2024. The choice to implement a brand new 6:6:5 quota plan is anticipated to restart the hiring course of.
The Justice H N Nagamohan Das Fee report
The report on the social, financial, and academic scenario of the SCs, ready by a Fee headed by retired excessive court docket choose Justice H N Nagamohan Das, was offered to Siddaramaiah on August 4 and it was accepted by the federal government throughout a Cupboard assembly on August 7.
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A survey of SC subcastes, carried out on the advice of the Fee, discovered that the full SC inhabitants in Karnataka is 1,07,01,982.
Nevertheless, after eradicating the Budaga Jangam-Beda Jangam inhabitants (1,77,662) – relating to which there’s an argument because of an analogous subcaste nomenclature amongst Lingayats – and the variety of inter-caste married people who find themselves not Scheduled Castes (14,449), the full inhabitants of SCs has been recorded as 1,05,09,871.
As per the 2011 Census, the inhabitants of SC communities in Karnataka was 17 per cent (1.04 crore) of the full inhabitants (6.1 crore).
The Fee advisable classifying the Dalit sub-castes into 5 classes, as an alternative of the prevailing 4, and to accord reservations based on their backwardness. “Every class consists of many castes. If the 17% reservation obtainable for Scheduled Castes within the state of Karnataka is to be distributed to those classes, the reservation ought to be distributed based on their inhabitants,” the fee has said in its report.
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“Nevertheless, if the reservation quota is distributed solely based on inhabitants, the purpose of social justice can’t be achieved. Along with inhabitants, the reservation quota ought to be decided holding in thoughts the academic, occupational, and social backwardness. It must be distributed,” the Fee said in its report.
The Fee advisable one per cent reservation to Class A, comprising 59 SC sub-castes with a inhabitants of three.97 per cent; and 6 per cent for Class B (SC Left group), which is taken into account probably the most backward and constitutes 34.91 per cent of the SC inhabitants with 18 sub-castes.
The Fee additionally advisable 5 per cent for Class C (SC Proper group), who’re thought-about much less backward and politically established, and represent 28.63 per cent of the SC inhabitants with 17 sub-castes; and 4 per cent for Class D (the ‘touchables’) who make up 26.97 per cent of SCs with 4 subcastes.
A brand new Class E comprising 4.52 per cent of the SC inhabitants who haven’t been recognized beneath a transparent sub-caste however have been categorized beneath three broad sub-groupings of Adi Dravida, Adi Andhra, and Adi Karnataka, has been advisable one per cent reservation.
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“Within the final 75 years, some Scheduled Castes have been empowered to some extent by having fun with reservation services. However the lifetime of some folks from these similar Scheduled Castes continues to be depressing. The tutorial stage of them and their youngsters could be very low,” the Fee famous.
“Consequently, there is no such thing as a increased schooling and no authorities jobs. The tutorial, occupational, and social backwardness of such castes must also be considered whereas distributing the quantity of reservation,” the Fee said.
Additional, it stated that “some castes which have acquired reservation services have seen instructional, occupational, political, financial and social mobility. On the similar time, some castes haven’t been in a position to get the good thing about reservation in any respect.”
“Understanding the scenario, those that are higher off should make sacrifices for many who are much less lucky than them. The hungry ought to be fed first. Those that are well-fed ought to make some sacrifices. In accordance with this coverage, the quota of reservation ought to be distributed on precedence,” the Fee stated, whereas justifying its division of the 17 per cent SC quota.
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For the reason that Karnataka authorities has halted recruitments in authorities providers since October 2024 on account of the pending determination on inner quotas for SCs, the Fee stated age relaxations ought to be prolonged to folks from the SC group who’ve misplaced out on job alternatives within the final 10 months.
Caste survey a long-time demand of Dalits
In January 2025, the Karnataka authorities constituted the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee to check and submit a report on inner reservation for Scheduled Castes within the state. The Fee submitted an interim report on March 27 and requested a recent survey of numbers because of the lack of correct knowledge.
The door-to-door survey was carried out from Could 5 to July 6, 2025. The survey coated 27,24,768 Scheduled Caste households and 1,07,01,982 folks, the report stated, noting poor response in city areas. The survey additionally noticed leaders of assorted SC communities directing group members to obviously state their sub-castes.
As per the Supreme Court docket, classification of sub-castes might be achieved on the idea of instructional backwardness, lack of illustration in authorities employment, and social backwardness.
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The survey of sub-castes is a part of the Congress authorities’s efforts to fulfil an electoral promise to supply inner reservations for socially weaker sub-castes throughout the SC quota within the state.
In Karnataka, the SC group is at the moment categorized beneath 4 broad heads – the SC Left (probably the most backward just like the Madigas who had been thought-about untouchables within the caste system); the SC Proper (just like the Holeyas, who’re much less backward and accepted by different castes); the ‘touchable’ communities corresponding to Banjaras and Bhovis (who’re tribes in different states); and dozens of small communities who’re categorized as Others.
The Dalit group has lengthy demanded the caste survey to establish the numbers in every of the sub-castes to resolve the division of quotas in authorities jobs, schooling, and political illustration, which is now allegedly hogged by upwardly cellular social teams among the many SCs just like the Holeyas, and the Banjaras and Bhovis.
How the BJP’s inner quota experiment backfired
The Justice Nagamohan Das Fee was arrange by the Congress authorities after the earlier BJP authorities (2019-2023) arrived at an advert hoc sub-quota quantity.
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Throughout its tenure between 2019 and March 2023, the BJP authorities had enhanced SC quotas within the state from 15 per cent to 17 per cent in 2022, and introduced inner reservation for SC communities in March 2023 by offering six per cent of the full of 17 per cent quota for the group to the SC Left group, 5.5 per cent to the SC Proper group, 4.5 per cent to the touchables and one per cent to different SC teams.
The BJP authorities mounted the interior quota on an advert hoc foundation by contemplating the 2011 caste census numbers and by contemplating sure elements of the 2012 Justice A J Sadashiva Fee report on inner quotas, whereas rejecting the Sadashiva Fee report itself.
Probably the most backward Dalit teams, just like the Madigas, have been demanding the implementation of the Justice Sadashiva Fee report on account of the Fee recommending six per cent for the SC Left group, 5 per cent for the backward SC Proper, three per cent for the ‘touchable’ group (Lambani, Bhovis, Korachas, Kormas), and one per cent for others.
The Fee discovered that almost all of the reservation for the 101 sub-sects of Dalits in Karnataka was being cornered by the Dalit Proper, together with the Holeyas, and new SC teams like Bhovis and Lambanis, whereas probably the most backward teams, just like the Madigas, remained disadvantaged.
The BJP’s inner quota scheme backfired on the celebration to some extent, with the ‘touchable’ teams just like the Bhovis and Banjaras expressing their displeasure in opposition to the celebration in the course of the 2023 polls over the lowered inner quota of 4.5 per cent (in opposition to the earlier 15 per cent) obtainable to them.
The BJP’s scheme was, nevertheless, not applied for the reason that mandate for altering inner quotas was vested with the Union authorities on the time. In August 2024, a Supreme Court docket ruling stated the granting of inner reservation is a constitutional measure and states can implement it on the idea of empirical knowledge.
Whereas constituting the Justice Nagamohan Das Fee, the federal government felt that inner reservations for SCs primarily based on inhabitants numbers – like within the Sadashiva Fee report – may presumably be struck down by courts for need of correct knowledge as ordered by the Supreme Court docket.
“Within the wake of three many years of steady calls for and strain for inner reservation within the state, the Cupboard has agreed in precept to supply inner reservation for Scheduled Castes. There are 101 sub-castes…and the federal government has determined to take all of them into confidence and scientifically implement inner reservation,” Siddaramaiah stated in 2024 when the Cupboard determined to arrange the brand new Fee.
The chief minister indicated that the Telangana authorities had already constituted a Fee alongside the identical strains for the implementation of inner reservation, and that knowledge is required for the scientific implementation of inner reservation as directed by the highest court docket.
A tough political transfer for Congress
Politically, the SC inner quota concern is a difficult topic for the Congress in Karnataka which has historically drawn its help from the SC Proper group to which a lot of its distinguished leaders belong.
Whereas the SC Left has supported the Congress previously, many of those communities have moved in direction of the BJP in current occasions on account of alleged neglect by the Congress by way of political illustration and alternatives. Probably the most distinguished SC Left chief within the Congress at current is Ok H Muniyappa, a seven-time MP and former Union minister.
The SC Proper group and the ‘touchables’, who’ve reportedly loved probably the most entry to all the 15 per cent SC quota obtainable within the state till now, are anticipated to withstand any transfer by the Siddaramaiah-led Cupboard to divide the SC quota within the state since these two politically highly effective teams will get lowered shares of 5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.