Karnataka High Court strikes down law raising SC and ST quotas beyond 50% ceiling

The Karnataka High Court on Monday, 12 October 2026, struck down provisions of a 2022 State law that had increased reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) from 15% to 17% and for Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 3% to 7%. A bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha held that the increase, which took total reservation in the State to 56%, breached the 50% ceiling, according to Bar & Bench. The judgment text was not available to us; this report relies on that outlet’s and The Indian Express’s accounts.

What the court held

The case concerned the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 2022. The court struck down Section 3 “insofar as it takes the aggregate reservation beyond the ceiling of 50%”, holding that it violates Articles 14 and 15, and also struck down Section 4, which applied the higher quotas to State government services, Bar & Bench reported.

The bench did not accept the State’s argument that the share of SCs, STs and other backward classes in Karnataka’s population, said to exceed 90%, justified a higher quota. “To accept the said contention would be destructive of the principle of equality enshrined under the Constitution,” the court said, as quoted by Bar & Bench.

According to the same report, the court distinguished between evidence that supports reservation and evidence showing circumstances that justify exceeding the ceiling. It noted that the committee reports relied on by the State might support measures such as internal reservation, but did not by themselves provide a legal basis to go beyond the overall limit.

The bench also held that reservation policy is a major policy matter on which the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes must be consulted under Articles 338(9) and 338A(9). The State relied on letters dated 10 December 2025 and 20 January 2026; the court noted they were sent nearly three years after the Act and after it had been challenged, and held that consultation “must precede the decision”.

Background

The Act received the Governor’s assent on 11 January 2023 and was deemed to have come into force from 1 November 2022. The 32% reservation for other backward classes was unchanged, so the overall figure rose from 50% to 56%. It followed recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Nagamohan Das Commission and a committee headed by former High Court judge Justice Subhash B. Adi, Bar & Bench reported.

Reactions

Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said in a statement issued late on Monday that the government would pursue all legal options, including an appeal in the Supreme Court. He asked the Prime Minister and the Centre to review the 50% ceiling and to consider Karnataka’s request to place the enhanced quota in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, The Indian Express reported. He said the BJP government of the time had been aware in October 2022 that the increase would exceed the ceiling and had enacted the law months before the Assembly election without securing Ninth Schedule protection.

The newspaper reported that the Centre told Parliament on 25 July 2026 that Karnataka’s Ninth Schedule proposal had been deferred because the matter was pending before the High Court. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the BJP-led Union Government must explain what constitutional solution it proposes. We did not find a response from the BJP or the Union Government to these statements by the time of publication.

What happens next

The State has said it will consider an appeal to the Supreme Court. No filing or hearing date had been reported at the time of writing.

A similar ruling came on 9 October 2026 from the Madhya Pradesh High Court on that State’s OBC quota law; see our earlier report.