Siddaramaiah vs Governor Gehlot over Karnataka Muslim quota bill: Twice rejected, why draft may head for President's nod

Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Wednesday declined to reconsider his decision of reserving the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025 for the consideration of the President of India.

Karnataka's Congress government may send to President Droupadi Murmu a bill that seeks to provide 4% reservation for Muslims in public contracts. It was passed by the state legislature in March.

The move comes after Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot refused to reconsider his decision to send the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to the President of India.

Senior officials told Times of India that the Karnataka government had considered challenging Gehlot's decision in court. However, constitutional experts reportedly advised the state government against it. According to the TOI report, the issue is likely to be discussed during a meeting chaired by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday.

What is Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025?

The bill provides for 4% reservation to Muslims in civil contracts valued up to Rs 1 crore. The proposed quota, which would fall under Category-2B, would reportedly push overall reservation for public works contracts to 47 percent. The governor on April 16 reserved the Bill for presidential assent.

In 2015, during his first term as Karnataka CM, Siddaramaiah proposed 24 per cent quotas for SC/STs in civil work contracts. The provision was extended to the Most Backward and Relatively Most Backward classes in 2023. His government has now sought to expand the scope of the same law by offering the scheme to communities in category II-B of the state OBC list.

What is the current law?

Karnataka now has reservation in civil works contracts for SC/STs (24 per cent) and OBC contractors belonging to Category-1 (4 per cent) and Category-2A (15 percent). This totals up to 43 per cent.

Why did the Governor decline to reconsider his decision?

“The State Government has re-submitted the KTPP (Amendment) Bill, 2025 making reference to the Hon’ble Supreme Court in State of Tamilnadu Vs Governor of Tamilnadu in 1239 of 2023 seeking my assent,” the order from Gehlot’s office stated.

Gehlot said the state government has referred to the observations of the Supreme Court in respect to the reservation of Bills by the governor.

According to Gehlot, the Supreme Court has emphasised that Articles 15 and 16 prohibit reservations on the basis of religion and any affirmative action must be rather based on the socio-economic factors.

“I am constrained to not reconsider the decision for reservation of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2025 for the kind consideration of the Hon'ble President of India. Return the Government file for further necessary action as directed earlier on 15-04-2025,” the order said.

What happened during the BJP regime?

In March 2023, the previous BJP government, led by then-Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, had abolished the 4 per cent reservation for Muslims under the 2B category of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. This quota was redistributed equally between the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities, creating two new reservation categories: 2C and 2D.

Consequently, Muslims were moved to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category, where they could compete for a 10 per cent reservation.

Why is the BJP upset with the Bill?

The BJP alleged that it is part of the Congress' appeasement politics and will weaken the national unity.

In his 2024 Jharkhand rally, Union home minister Amit Shah also criticised Congress’s support for religion-based reservations. He said, “Congress talks about reservation, but in our constitution, there is no such provision to give reservation based on religion”.

The issue was also raised in Lok Sabha in March this year with BJP MPs demanding its withdrawal.

Both MPs Nishikant Dubey and Tejasvi Surya demanded the rollback of the bill even as Opposition MPs objected to the raising of the issue. "A secular State cannot take such a measure...This is to provide contracts to people associated with the banned PFI (Popular Front of India) and KFD (Karnataka Forum for Dignity), who are sitting idle," said Tejasvi Surya, Bengaluru South MP.