Karnataka Muslim quota: A day ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Tuesday took objection to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other public functionaries making statements about the scrapping of the 4% reservation for Muslims in the state.
This comes after Shah had defended the state BJP government's decision to do away with the 4% quota for Muslims under the OBC list. A bench of Justices KM Joseph, BV Nagarathna and Ahsanuddin Amanullah remarked that public functionaries should be careful while making speeches, and not politicise issues that are under consideration by the Court.
'Sanctity has to be maintained for Court process'
Hearing the matter, Justice Nagarathna said such statements are “not appropriate” & “sanctity has to be maintained for the Court process”. The remark was made after senior Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioners challenging the scrapping of the 4% Muslim quota, said, “Everyday home minister is making statements in Karnataka that they have withdrawn 4% Muslim quota. Why should such statements be made?”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Karnataka government objected to the statements being made, saying he is not aware of any such remarks and if anyone is saying that quota on the basis of religion should not be there, then what is wrong and it is a fact.
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Justice Joseph said, “Solicitor General making a statement in the court is not a problem but some saying anything on a sub-judice matter outside the court is not appropriate. In 1971, a political leader was hauled up for contempt for holding a press conference against the order of the court”.
BJP-led state govt scrapped Muslim reservation
Last month, Karnataka's Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai-led government scrapped the reservation of four per cent given to Muslims. The government 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.
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