Internal quotas: Karnataka govt appoints Justice Nagmohan Das to head panel

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has appointed retired High Court judge Justice HN Nagmohan Das to head a commission to recommend internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC).

In its order, the social welfare department said Justice Das has two months to collect empirical data and recommend sub-classification of SCs.

Justice Das is already heading a panel that is looking into the "40 per cent commission" allegation levelled against the previous BJP government.

This appointment came after the Cabinet, on October 28, decided to implement internal reservation among SCs by constituting a new commission following a Supreme Court ruling that empowered States to carry out the exercise.

Justice Das is no stranger to this subject. Earlier, he headed a commission that recommended increasing reservation for SCs from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. It was based on this that the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government decided to hike the quotas.

The retired judge also headed an expert committee, constituted by Siddaramaiah during his first term as CM, to decide on according 'religious minority' status to the Lingayat community.