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New Delhi, April 26 (). The Karnataka government told the Supreme Court that it has taken a conscious decision not to continue reservation for the Muslim community on the basis of religion only, as it is unconstitutional and against Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
The state government informed that on March 27, the 4 per cent reservation provided to Muslims was scrapped and members of the community were allowed to take benefits of reservation under the EWS scheme.
The government said that it should be noted that the benefits of reservation under Group I of the 2002 Reservation Order will continue to be provided to the backward groups of the Muslim community.
The state government said that reservation based only on religion is contrary to the principles of social justice. Therefore, reservation cannot be given to any community only on the basis of religion.
The state said that the provision of reservation on the basis of religion would be contrary to the concept of secularism.
The government said that just because reservation on the basis of religion has been provided in the past is no ground to continue it forever.
The State Government stated that there are socially and educationally backward sections of the society, who have been historically disadvantaged and discriminated against and cannot be clubbed with an entire religion, and asserted that the Mandal Commission had clearly Found that religion cannot be the sole basis of reservation.
The affidavit states: No reservation has been given to the Muslim community on the basis of religion in the Central List. There are various communities of Muslim religion who are included in SEBC, they continue to have reservation in Karnataka as well.
The state government said that on the basis of the 103rd amendment, the benefit of 10 percent reservation on the basis of economic criteria (EWS) can be availed by the Muslim community.
The affidavit states that the inclusion of the Muslim community in the category of Other Backward Classes in 1979 was contrary to the recommendations of the First Backward Classes Commission headed by LG Havanur.
In the case of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court allowed reservation only for limited identifiable communities among Muslims and not for the entire religion.
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