The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to list a petition that challenged the decision of the Karnataka government to scrap the four percent reservation provided to Muslims in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before the Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice J.B. Pardiwala.
The Senior Advocate contended that he had earlier mentioned the matter before a different bench but it was not taken up.
The CJI said that it was because all defects had not been cured in the plea.
After Sibal apprised the Apex Court that all the defects had been cured, the CJI agreed to list the matter.
Later in the day, the government of Karnataka submitted before the Bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagarathna that it would not implement the withdrawal of four percent Muslim reservation till the next hearing of the case in the court.
The counsel appearing for Karnataka made the submission after the Apex Court said that from the records tabled before the court, it appeared that the Karnataka government’s decision was based on a fallacious assumption.
The top court directed Karnataka not to proceed with any admission or appointment based on the new reservation policy till the next date of hearing April 18.
The BJP government in the state had decided to exclude Muslims from the OBC category and scrapped the four percent reservation given to them under Category 2B. The quota was then distributed equally among Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas at two percent each. The state government further accorded internal reservation for 101 Scheduled Castes (SC). Muslims were thus moved to the 10 percent EWS quota pool.