Nagamohan Das to head panel to suggest internal reservation among SC communities

H.N. Nagamohan Das appointed to head commission on internal reservation for SC communities in Karnataka.

The State government has appointed H.N. Nagamohan Das, retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, to head the commission of inquiry to recommend to the government on the internal reservation for the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities. The commission has been given two months to submit its recommendation.

The order on appointing Mr. Das to head the commission was issued by the Social Welfare Department on Tuesday based on the decision of the Cabinet taken on October 28. Incidentally, it was based on his recommendation in an earlier commission that the reservation quota for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes was raised from 15% to 17% and 3% to 7%, respectively. Currently, Mr. Das is also probing the “40 % commission” allegations that surfaced during the previous BJP government’s rule.

The single-man commission will collate empirical data on the representation of various communities among the SCs in public education and employment and submit its recommendation on implementation of internal reservation.

The State government, which has been under pressure from various Dalit groups to implement internal reservation, had announced that the reservation pie would be sliced up among communities based on empirical data to be acceptable to courts. The Dalit left faction has been for nearly four decades seeking internal reservation as it believes the Dalit right communities have a bigger share in the reservation for the SCs in education and employment that now stands at 17%.

The A.J. Sadashiva Commission had in 2012 submitted a report on internal reservation, recommending a sub-matrix within the reservation quota for Dalit left and Dalit right communities, Lambanis, Bhovis, Koracha, Koramas, and other communities. There are 101 sub-communities among Dalits in Karnataka.