The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday formally ratified its earlier decisions on internal reservation for Scheduled Castes and approved key administrative changes aimed at accelerating long-pending government recruitment across departments. The decisions reaffirm the state government’s move to restructure the distribution of posts within the existing 15 per cent SC quota and implement a revised recruitment framework.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said the government had endorsed earlier resolutions taken on April 16 and April 24, which laid the foundation for internal reservation within the Scheduled Caste quota. He said the Cabinet’s latest approval was intended to remove procedural bottlenecks and ensure faster implementation of recruitment processes across state services.

Patil said the Cabinet has decided to implement internal reservation within the 15 per cent SC quota in specified proportions and adopt a 400-point roster system for all upcoming recruitment. He added that if fewer than three roster points for Scheduled Castes arise in a recruitment cycle, all 101 SC communities will be allowed to compete under a general SC category, ensuring broader representation and flexibility in the selection process.

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The minister also announced that recruitment notifications issued earlier without incorporating the revised internal reservation framework will be withdrawn and reissued in line with the new policy. He said the government is preparing to fill 56,432 sanctioned posts and will take urgent steps to ensure that the recruitment process is not further delayed due to procedural revisions. He also indicated that if the Supreme Court approves an enhanced 24 per cent reservation for SC/ST categories, backlog posts would be filled accordingly.

The Cabinet’s decision follows its April 24 approval of a revised internal reservation structure within the SC quota, which allocated 5.25 per cent each to the so-called “right-hand” and “left-hand” SC groups, and around 4.5 per cent to other Scheduled Castes, including nomadic communities. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had earlier stated that the categorisation was designed within constitutional limits and aligned with the Supreme Court’s guidance on internal reservation frameworks.

The state government reiterated that the overall reservation structure remains within the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Indra Sawhney judgment, while emphasizing that internal classification is aimed at ensuring equitable distribution among various SC sub-groups. Officials said the implementation of the new system is expected to begin soon with fresh notifications, marking a significant shift in Karnataka’s recruitment and reservation policy framework.

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