Bengaluru, 8 Oct

State BJP President BY Vijayendra on Tuesday said a delegation of party leaders will soon meet the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urging Congress government to implement the internal reservation among Scheduled Castes, as recommended by the previous BJP government.

"...after discussion with everyone the previous Basavaraj Bommai government had made a recommendation to the central government regarding internal reservation, the now Congress government in the State should implement it as it is," Vijayendra told reporters after a meeting of party leaders discussed the issue under his leadership.

Just ahead of the Assembly polls last year, the previous BJP government's Cabinet had taken a decision on internal reservation, by recommending to central government a six per cent internal quota for SC (Left), 5.5 per cent for SC (Right), 4.5 per cent for "touchables" (Banjara, Bhovi, Korcha, Kuruma etc) and one per cent for others.

In a landmark verdict, Supreme Court on August one held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward.

A seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, by a majority of 6:1, set aside the apex court's five-judge bench verdict of 2004 in the EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh case which had held that no sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) can be allowed as they are a homogeneous class in themselves. -PTI