Bengaluru: The hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the August 16, 2022 notification related to ward-wise reservation of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palke (BBMP) constituencies has been adjourned to Wednesday by the Karnataka High Court.
The petitioners’ counsel argued during the hearing that “rotation in reservation” has not been followed in several wards. There was a claim that the majority of the wards falling within the Assembly constituencies represented by MLAs from the opposition party had been set aside for women.
Similarly, the majority of the wards in the Assembly constituencies that are represented by MLAs from the ruling party have been set aside for general candidates.
The petitioners claimed that the dedicated commission, led by retired High Court Judge Justice Bhaktavatsala, ignored the norms for determining political backwardness and instead based its findings on those used to grant reservation in the educational field.
Justice Hemant Chandanagoudar’s bench asked if the State Government can redo the reservation notification and implement the required notification within the allotted time.
According to the State Election Commission’s (SEC) attorney, any effort to redo the reservation process, particularly with the OBC category, will take at least a year because it is necessary to assess nationwide data to determine political backwardness.
In the meantime, the State Government has claimed that the Backwards Class-A and B categories and women’s reservations were selected at random.
According to the State Government’s statement of objections, the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was formed in descending order of ward-wise population. The state added that before the next local body elections in 2027 or 2028, the dedicated commission has also recommended reclassifying BC-A and BC-B into two more categories of backward classes to effectively reserve seats for OBCs, including minorities.
