Supreme Court postpones hearing on plea against scrapping of Muslim reservation in Karnataka

The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing on a petition challenging the Karnataka Government’s decision to eliminate the 4% OBC reservation for Muslims until July. This was after the state government provided an assurance not to implement the decision until the next hearing. The bench, led by Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna, fixed the next hearing for July 25. The Karnataka government has also assured that no admissions or appointments will be made based on the government order that eliminates the OBC reservation until the next hearing.

During the hearing, the court has taken note of statements made by some political leaders on the issue and remarked such statements are not appropriate and not be made by public functionaries when the matter is in court.

The court’s remark came when Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioner, apprised the court of the statement given by Home Minister Amit Shah.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought adjournment on the ground that he is before the Constitution Bench.

Earlier, the Karnataka government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court defending its decision to scrap four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims in the state. The state government also submitted that the provision of reservation on the basis of religion would also be contrary to the concept of secularism.

Karnataka government has filed the affidavit in response to various petitions challenging its decision to scrap four per cent OBC reservation for Muslims in the state.
In the affidavit, the Karnataka government said the petitioners herein have sought to give a colour to the exercise in question which is completely baseless.Karnataka government submitted that petitioners have directly approached the top court under Article 32 of the Constitution, without approaching the Karnataka High Court and therefore urged the top court to dismiss the petition on this ground alone.
It said that the Muslim community suffers no prejudice as they can avail the benefit of EWS reservation which is 10 per cent.