VOKKALIGAS, LINGAYATS

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The State Government of Karnataka has categorized the two dominant communities; Vokkaligas and Lingayats, as “moderately backward” from the “backward” category to increase their share in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category reservation.
- The Vokkaliga community currently in the 3A category will be moved to a newly-created 2C category with a 4% reservation.
- The Lingayat community in the 3B category will be moved to a new 2D category with a 5% reservation.
The Government stated that the decision is based on the recommendations made by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
- Karnataka currently has a 32% quota for OBC, and a 17% and 7% quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, respectively, taking the total to 56%.
Karnataka government asked the Union Government to approve the hike in the reservation by including it under Schedule 9 of the Constitution,

Why State asked the Union to include the bill in the 9th Schedule?

The 77% reservation breaches the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney v Union of India verdict. However, including legislation in the 9th Schedule protect it from judicial scrutiny.
Not the 1st time
- The Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993, reserves 69% of the seats in colleges and jobs in the state government.
- When it ran into legal obstacles in the 1990s after the Supreme Court verdict, the then Chief Minister led a delegation to meet the then Prime Minister. The reservation provision was then included in the 9th Schedule.

What is the Ninth Schedule?

After independence, zamindari abolition and land reform laws were passed, but the Government faced several problems; the land legislation was challenged in the various courts.
- The first case challenging the land law was Kameshwar Singh V/s State of Bihar, in this case, the Bihar Land Reforms Act 1950 was challenged on the ground that the classification of zamindars made to give compensation was discriminatory and denied equal protection of laws guaranteed to the citizen under Article 14 of the Constitution.
- The Patna High Court held this piece of legislation as violative of Article 14 as it classified the zamindars for payments of compensation in a discriminatory manner.
As a result of these judicial pronouncements, the Government amended the Constitution in the year 1951 which inserted the 9th Schedule.
The 9th Schedule contains a list of Union and state laws which cannot be challenged in court. Currently, 284 such laws are shielded from judicial review.
- Most of the laws protected under the Schedule concern agriculture/land issues.
While the Ninth Schedule provides the law with a “safe harbour” from judicial review, the protection is not blanket.
In IR Coelho v State of Tamil Nadu case, the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous nine-judge verdict that while laws placed under Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged on the grounds of violation of fundamental rights, they can be challenged on the ground of violating the basic structure of the Constitution.

Lingayats

Lingayats belong to a Hindu sect with a wide following in southern India that worships Shiva as the only deity.
The followers take their name (“lingam-wearers”) from the small representations of a lingam; both the men and the women always wear hanging by a cord around their necks, in place of the sacred thread worn by most upper-caste Hindu men.
The sect has been founded by Basava in the 12th century, but some scholars believe that he furthered an already-existing creed.
The Lingayats’ earlier overthrow of caste distinctions has been modified in modern times, but the sect continues to be strongly anti-Brahmanical and opposed to the worship of any image other than the lingam.
They rejected the authority of the Vedas, the doctrine of transmigration of souls, child marriage, and ill-treatment of widows.
They ignored Sanskrit – which was understood by very few – and addressed the people in Kannada.
In Lingayat all are equal by birth; differentiation is only based on the knowledge they possess.

Vokkaliga

It is a community, or a group of closely-related castes, in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
They have historically had notable demographic, political, and economic dominance in Old Mysore (region).
It is believed by some historians that the Rashtrakutasand Western Gangas were of Vokkaliga origin.
The Vokkaligas occupied administrative positions in the Vijayanagara Empire.
Under the Kingdom of Mysore, they operated autonomouslyand also served in the army and militia.
Most sub-sects of the Vokkaliga community are designated as Forward castes by the Central Government of India. While some sub-sects in rural areas are designated as Other Backward Class by the Karnataka Government.