4% quota for Muslims in tender: Karnataka governor sends bill to president

Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot retained the president’s bill to introduce a 4% quota for Muslims in the contract to “avoid more constitutional complications”, while showing that the country’s founding documents do not allow religious-based retention.

The Transparency (Amendment) bill in Karnataka Public Procurement was passed at the State Assembly Budget Meeting in March. The bill proposes to provide Muslims with a 4% quota in construction contracts worth up to Rs 1 crore.

The opposition BJP strongly opposed the bill and called it the “appe politics” of the ruling congress of Karnataka.

The governor’s decision was to slam the Congress government on a religious basis to retain the tender by Haryana Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently “snatched away” SC/STS and OBC’s rights.

In a communication with the government, Mr. Grott said: “The Indian Constitution does not allow relic based on religion because it violates the principle of equality (art. 14), non-discrimination (art. 15) and equal opportunities for public employment opportunities (art. 16).

The governor said the Supreme Court ruled “consistently” that affirmative action must be based on social and educational backwardness rather than religious identities.

Prior to the 2023 Congress elections, the former BJP government withdrew 4% reservations of Class 2B regulations and tried cases in the Supreme Court.

In its recent judgment on Saurabh Chaudri and the Union of India (2003), the Supreme Court said that Articles 15 and 16 prohibit reservations under religious prohibition and that any affirmative action must be based on socioeconomic factors.

The governor noted that the Kolkata High Court case regarding classification of 77 Muslim communities into OBC, West Bengal, was knocked down.

The bill also increases the reservation limit for construction contracts for SC/ST from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore. It also introduced SC/ST, SC/ST, Category 1, Category 2A and Category 2 (Muslims) in government tenders to purchase goods and services up to Rs 1 crore.