SC adjourns pleas against scrapping 4% OBC quota for Muslims in Karnataka

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing for April 25 of the petitions challenging the scrapping of the four per cent (Other backward Classes) OBC quota for Muslims in Karnataka.

The Karnataka government sought an adjournment and assured a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna that no fresh appointments or admissions would be made based on Karnataka's order scrapping the reservation for Muslims till the next date of hearing.

Last week, the Karnataka government had told the bench that no admissions or appointments will take place on the basis of a government order scrapping the OBC reservation for Muslims till April 18.

The assurance was given by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to the apex court which listed the matter for further hearing on April 18.

The bench had also issued notice to Karnataka Government and others on the pleas and asked them to file a reply.

During the hearing last week, the apex court opined that it seemed that the government order is based on "fallacious presumptions".

Petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the Karnataka government's decision to scrap the reservation of four per cent given to Muslims in the state.

The petitioners said that the decision of the state government was completely unconstitutional, which was done just ahead of the upcoming assembly election. The petitioners also said that the government has misrepresented facts and that there there is no empirical data.

The Karnataka government last month scrapped the four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims and distributed it to the two dominant communities, Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The government also decided to move OBC Muslims to the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.

Meanwhile, the Assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled to be held on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.