The Karnataka Scheduled Castes (Sub-classification) Bill, 2025, that seeks to provide legality to the government orders related to sub-classification of the 101 Scheduled Castes with a reservation share of 17% was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
The one-man commission led by retired Justice H.N. Naga Mohan Das had submitted its report to the government on August 4 this year with specific recommendations on sub-classification of Scheduled Castes among various sub-groups of SCs. The government approved the recommendations of the commission with some modifications to implement the sub-classification among the SCs for ensuring a fair and equitable distribution of reservation benefits, and accordingly sub-categorised 101 Scheduled Castes with a share of 17% of reservation.
As per the Bill, Category-A, which has 16 castes, and Category-B, with 19 castes, will get reservation of 6% each, while Category-C, comprising 63 castes, will get reservation of 5%. Similarly, the Bill has three non-categorised Scheduled Castes – Adi Andhra, Adi Dravida and Adi Karnataka – that are eligible to opt for reservation under Category-A or Category-B, based on caste certificates.
The Karnataka State Commission for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Amendment) Bill, 2025, too was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The Bill seeks to nominate a person belonging to the ST and a woman as the members of the Karnataka State Commission for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
It also seeks to empower the Karnataka State Commission for the SC and ST to make necessary modifications in the reservation percentage of sub-classification to the members of SCs on the receipt of new data or information from the government.
The Assembly also adopted six Bills, including the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and Drugs and Cosmetics (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2025.
Published – December 17, 2025 09:15 pm IST
