Karnataka HC Strikes Down SC/ST Quota Hike as Unconstitutional for Breaching 50% Cap
Delivering a landmark constitutional verdict on affirmative action, the Karnataka High Court on Monday struck down crucial provisions of a 2022 state enactment that raised reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) from 15 percent to 17 percent and for Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 3 percent to 7 percent. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K.S. Hemalekha ruled that the quota expansion breached the mandatory 50 percent upper ceiling laid down by the Supreme Court of India, rendering the statutory enhancement legally unsustainable. Invalidating the core framework of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 2022, the bench held that Section 3 of the Act—which governed admission quotas in educational institutions and state posts—directly infringed upon Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution by expanding aggregate caste-based reservations beyond permissible constitutional limits.
Breaching Indira Sawhney Ceiling: Sections 3 & 4 Quashed Over Articles 14, 15, and 16
The high court bench further struck down Section 4 of the 2022 legislation, declaring it unconstitutional for violating Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, which guarantee equality of opportunity in public employment. The court reiterated that the 50 percent reservation threshold was firmly established by the nine-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court in the landmark 1992 Indira Sawhney vs Union of India verdict and has been reaffirmed across subsequent apex court judgments. The legal challenge arose through two separate writ petitions highlighting that the statutory revision had pushed the cumulative reservation quantum in Karnataka—spanning SCs, STs, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs)—from 50 percent up to 56 percent. One petition was instituted by Mahendra Kumar Mitra, State President of the Dr. Ambedkar Scheduled Castes Federation, while the second joint challenge was brought by civil engineering graduates Sagar H.R., Prajwal Kumar D., and Purushottam Gowda G.M., who had applied for recruitment as Assistant Engineers (Civil) with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and contested the validity of the revised quota roster.
Bommai Era Legislation: Nagamohan Das Commission & Justice Subhash Adi Reports in Focus
The contested reservation statute was originally passed during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration led by then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Following legislative approval, the bill received formal assent from the Karnataka Governor on January 11, 2023, and was subsequently notified in the Karnataka Government Gazette on January 12, 2023. The state legislature had framed the enhancement on the basis of empirical representation findings, relying primarily on the comprehensive recommendations submitted by the Justice (Retd.) H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission as well as the committee headed by former High Court judge Justice Subhash B. Adi. With the High Court now formally invalidating the statutory mechanisms of Sections 3 and 4, the verdict triggers immediate administrative ramifications for ongoing civil recruitments, BBMP engineer appointments, and higher educational admissions across Karnataka.
