Bengaluru: According to sources, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday December 14 has ordered the State Government to accept recommendation of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes recommendation extending backward class status to Kodavas.
In 2015 and September 2021, the court quashed two government orders that rejected the Commission’s recommendations.
According to sources, the Codava National Council has filed the petition. The suggestion was made following two extensive investigations by the expert statutory body, the first in 2005 and the second in 2010. The recommendation was made to allow members of the community to avail the benefits of reservation under category 3-A.
The petitioner’s counsel has cited section 9(2) of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995, which states that the advice of commission shall ordinarily binding on the government. The government’s advocate said that because the provision uses the word “ordinarily,” the government has the option of accepting or rejecting the advice.
“It is true that the government may not accept the advice in justified cases; however, it must provide cogent and compelling reasons for doing so; otherwise, advice must be accepted as a norm,” said Justice Krishna S. Dixit. He also said that an argument to the contrary cannot be sustained without violating the policy content and principal object of the Act.
According to sources, the court further noted that the HC had already issued a direction in this regard. “Government cannot treat the advice of a Commission of this stature as susceptible to the views of another unknown authority; ours is a ‘welfare State,’ not the East India Company; what perplexes this court is the reiteration of the same stand with the duplication of the text of the order, despite a direction issued by a co-ordinate bench,” it added. The government has been ordered to submit a compliance report to the Registrar General within three months, or face severe costs.
