The Karnataka High Court on Friday quashed government notification on Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palika (BBMP) ward reservation on grounds that it was not done scientifically and does not comply with the triple test norm prescribed by the Supreme Court. It has directed the State to revise the process of reservation of wards for Women and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) categories by November 30 and has set a deadline to complete elections to the BBMP by December 31.
The order was passed by Justice Hemant Chandangoudar while disposing of a batch of pleas which questioned the reservation fixed for 243 wards under various categories.
The petitioners had claimed that the BBMP ward reservations is unscientific and did not follow the ‘triple test’ rule mandated by the Supreme Court before allotting reservations to OBCs.
In the women’s category, the High Court had found that reservation was not rational, and asked the state to fix the reservation for women in descending order of their population ward-wise.
The government has also been directed to submit proper data on the OBC population before the commission, which was set up to make recommendations for reservations for this category. The government should fix reservations for OBC after securing the revised report from the commission.
