Latest news with #SocioeconomicandEducationalSurvey
Indian Express
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Adopt Karnataka model for caste census, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah urges Centre
Welcoming its decision to enumerate castes in the upcoming Census, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday urged the BJP-led central government to survey the social, economic and educational status of various communities and to adopt the state model for the exercise. 'The Socioeconomic and Educational Survey carried out by the Karnataka government is a complete model and the state government is ready to offer its expertise to the Centre,' he said in a statement. A 50-volume report of the Socioeconomic and Educational Survey carried out by the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission was recently placed before the Cabinet but its findings have come under fire from the Opposition BJP and JD(S), along with influential communities such as Vokkaligas and Lingayats. The survey did not just enumerate various castes present in the state but also studied their social, economic and educational status. 'Based on the data compiled, there are attempts being made to revise the reservation limit. In its Caste Census, I am confident that the Central government will also take up this process,' the Congress leader said. Taking a dig at the BJP for opposing the caste census till now, he said the saffron party had argued that such an exercise would stir strife among various castes, alleging a conspiracy to divide the Hindu community in the country. After making such claims, it is a welcome development that the BJP and governments led by the party have understood the social significance of caste enumeration, Siddaramaiah said. On the opposition to the Socioeconomic and Educational Survey, the chief minister said that though a report was ready, the state BJP unit was opposing it with various excuses. Noting that Karnataka was trying to revise the 50 per cent reservation limit upwards, he requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to advise state BJP leaders against opposing the attempt. Though the survey was commissioned in Karnataka in 2015, it was placed before the cabinet in the second week of April this year, almost a decade later. Successive governments, including the previous Congress government under Siddaramaiah (2013-18), had baulked at tabling it in the state legislature fearing political repercussions. Siddaramaiah, who commissioned the survey in his first term, took two years after becoming chief minister for the second time in May 2023 to table the report in the cabinet. The nudge to take up the report is said to have come during the Congress national convention recently held in Gujarat, where the party decided to focus on Other Backward Classes. The Karnataka survey's findings have estimated that OBCs and religious minorities form around 70 per cent of the state population.
Indian Express
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Karnataka High Court adjourns pleas against state caste survey implementation to July 17
The Karnataka High Court on Monday posted to July 17 petitions filed against the Socioeconomic and Educational Survey and rejected a petitioner's oral plea to restrict the state government from taking action on the basis of the caste survey during the pendency of the petitions. The bunch of six petitions dating from 2015 to 2024 have called into question the caste survey, which was completed in 2015 and unveiled by the Congress government on April 11 at a cabinet meeting. Petitioners Shivraj Kanshetty and others have requested the high court to strike down a September 6, 2014, amendment to section 9 of the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission Act 1995 that facilitated the caste survey and the 2014 order for the survey. The petitions from 2015 have been pending in the high court on account of the Supreme Court hearing a plea related to the powers of states to decide on policies for the development of backward classes under sections 15(4) and 16 (4) of the Constitution of India. During the arguments on Monday, the counsel for the petitioners said the petitions related to the caste survey sought to be conducted by the government of Karnataka in 2014. A division bench of Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice K V Aravind said the matter was not urgent and could be taken up on July 17. The counsel, however, sought a high court direction that no further action should be taken on the report on account of an undertaking given by Karnataka to the Supreme Court, where the matter is still pending. The high court directed the petitioner's counsel to apply for an interim order for the relief sought. In March 2021, the high court adjourned the pleas challenging the caste survey by referring to a matter pending before a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court in civil appeal No.3123 of 2020, where the apex court has 'formulated six questions for consideration'. One of these questions is whether the 102nd amendment to the Constitution 'deprives the state legislature of its power to enact a legislation determining the socially and economically backward classes and conferring the benefits on the said community under its enabling power?' Another question is 'whether states' power to legislate in relation to 'any backward class' under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) is anyway abridged by Article 342(A) read with Article 366(26c) of the Constitution of India?' A third question is 'whether Article 342A of the Constitution abrogates States' power to legislate or classify in respect of 'any backward class of citizens' and thereby affects the federal policy/structure of the Constitution of India?' 'Section 11 of the Backward Classes Act provides that the State Government shall, at the expiration of ten years on coming into force of the said Act and every succeeding period of ten years, undertake revision of the lists prepared by the state government for the purpose of excluding from such lists those classes who have ceased to be backward classes or for including in such lists, new backward classes under Articles 15(4) and 16 of the Constitution of India,' the high court said in its order on the petitions on March 17, 2021. 'Sub-section (1) of Section 11 of the Backward Classes Act contemplates exclusion of backward classes of Citizens and inclusion as well. The survey which is the subject matter of challenge in these petitions has been undertaken in aid of the exercise to be conducted under sub-section (1) of Section 11 of the Backward Classes Act,' the court had further observed. 'Now, the Constitution Bench is examining the very power of the State to legislate in relation to 'any backward class' under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) in the light of the provisions of Article 342(A) of the Constitution incorporated by 102nd Amendment with effect from 15th August, 2018. Thus, the questions which are being examined by the Constitutional Bench include questions regarding the very existence of the power of the state government to make classification in respect of any backward class of citizens.' The high court had earlier adjourned the hearings on the petitions against the caste survey on account of the Supreme Court addressing the issue of state powers to legislate on the welfare of backward classes.
