Belagavi, Dec 26, 2022, IANS

Belagavi, Dec 26 (IANS): The Karnataka Assembly on Monday passed a Bill to raise reservation quota for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates in jobs and educational institutions, taking the overall reservation in the state past the 50 per cent ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court.

The Bill, envisaging a hike in reservation by 2 per cent for SC and 4 per cent for ST candidates, thus, bringuing the overall reservation quota to 56 per cent now, was unanimously passed after the Congress and the JD-S legislators extended their support.

The support came after the ruling BJP agreed to ensure implementation of the increased reservation by pushing the Central government for an amendment to include the Bill in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution.

Tabling the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Bill, 2022, Law and Parliamentary affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy recalled the BJP's poll promise to increase SC and ST reservation.

"After the Bill is passed, we will follow up with the Union government to get it implemented effectively without any legal hassles," he said.

As Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanded that the reservation should be applicable to private sector also, the Law Minister responded by stating that he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister.

The Bill passed on Monday aims to replace an ordinance that the Karnataka cabinet had approved, effectively hiking the reservation for SC community from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for the ST community from 3 per cent to 7 per cent.

The BJP government in Karnataka had decided to increase the quota based on a report prepared by a committee headed by retired High Court Justice league H.N. Nagmohan Das.