K'taka Legislative Council adopts resolution urging Centre to include 56 pc quota in 9th Schedule
Belagavi (PTI): Karnataka Legislative Council has adopted a resolution asking the central government to include the state's 56 per cent reservation decision in the ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The resolution was adopted by the Council in the absence of the opposition members on Friday, as they had earlier staged a walkout dissatisfied with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's reply to the debate on North Karnataka's development.
The resolution urging for the inclusion of the state's notifications and orders, increasing the reservation in employment and education for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes from 50 per cent to 56 per cent in Schedule-9 of the Constitution of India, was moved by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil.
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According to official sources, the demand for inclusion in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution is aimed at providing legal protection from the 50 per cent cap on reservations, imposed by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case.
The House also adopted six resolutions urging the Centre to address long-pending issues, in the absence of opposition members.
The resolutions include: Urging the Government of India to immediately establish the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Raichur district; to transfer at least 25 per cent of the 73 national-level institutes currently in Bengaluru to the North Karnataka region; to immediately declare the Upper Krishna Project Phase-III (UKP-III) as a national project, release central funds and demand gazette notification of the final award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II).
The resolutions demand the release of Rs 5,000 crore adjustment grant to the Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board from the Central Government on the Vidarbha development model; to protect farmers by fixing equal ethanol procurement quotas without discrimination, and, in accordance with the ethanol production capacity of Karnataka, based on the availability of sugarcane and other raw materials, were also passed.
A resolution was also adopted urging the Centre to expedite the necessary approvals from the Forest and Wildlife Boards for the ambitious Kalasa-Banduri Nala Diversion Project for drinking water supply, in accordance with the judgment of the Mahadayi Tribunal.
Similar resolutions were adopted in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
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SC stays UGC regulation pertaining to definition of caste discrimination
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a recent University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation after various pleas were filed contending that the Commission adopted a non-inclusionary definition of caste-based discrimination and excluded certain categories from institutional protection.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre and the UGC on the pleas challenging the regulation.
The new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form "equity committees" to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity were notified on January 13.
The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, mandated that these committees must include members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), persons with disabilities, and women.
The new regulations replaces the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, which was largely advisory in nature.
The pleas assailed the regulation on the grounds that caste-based discrimination is defined strictly as discrimination against members of the SCs, STs and OBCs.
It said that by limiting the scope of "caste-based discrimination" only to SC, ST and OBC categories, the UGC has effectively denied institutional protection and grievance redressal to individuals belonging to the "general" or non-reserved categories who may also face harassment or bias based on their caste identity.
Protests were held at various places against the regulations, with student groups and organisations demanding its immediate rollback.
