Declaring that the Karnataka Government is committed to providing political reservation to OBCs in local bodies while holding elections, Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy on Thursday said the government was considering filing an appeal before the Supreme Court seeking two or three months time to hold local body polls.
Briefing reporters after the State Cabinet meeting, he said the issue had been discussed in detail at a meeting convened by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in which himself, representatives of the Law Department, and the State Advocate-General participated.
Mr. Madhuswamy pointed out that the Supreme Court in its instructions to Madhya Pradesh had said that polls to local bodies should be held without any delay after the expiry of their term. In an obvious reference to its earlier order in which it had stressed the need for studying the political backwardness of OBCs through empirical data before giving reservation to them in local bodies, he said the court had observed that elections to local bodies should be held soon with provisions for reservation to only SC/STs and that there was no need to wait for giving reservation to OBCs.
