The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a public interest litigation petition questioning constitutional validity of creation of separate development corporations in the name of Maratha, Brahmin, Veerashaiva-Lingayat, and Aryavysya.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order on the petition filed by the Karnataka State Backward Castes’ Federation and J. Srinivasan, a retired bureaucrat and founder president of the federation.
Also, the Bench directed the government to furnish the notifications of setting up boards and corporations in the name of individual castes and communities while ordering that all further steps to be taken by the government in relation to these corporations would be subject to the final order to be passed by the court.
The petitioner has sought a direction from the court declaring establishment, financing, and administration of all the development corporations in the name of caste, community, and religion, except, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation, Karnataka Maharshi Valimiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation, D. Devaraj Urs Backward Class Development Corporation, and the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporations, as illegal and unconstitutional.
Also, the petitioner sought a direction to the government to not establish, finance or administer any boards or corporations in the name of caste, community, and religion except the four corporations.
Contending that these boards and corporations were created without the basis of any law, the petitioner has said that creation of boards for the a few chosen castes and communities amounts to arbitrary as only a few selected groups are benefited from these corporations leaving out a large number of other castes and communities.
The petitioner has alleged that the creation of recent corporations in the name of castes and communities is politically motivated and announcement of some of these castes were made targeting voters belonging to particular castes and communities during the recently concluded byelections, and ensuing byelections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assembly.
