New Delhi: Hold Muslim quota move till May 9, SC tells Karnataka

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said Karnataka's earlier regime granting four per cent reservation to Muslims will continue to hold the field till May 9. The top court will hear the batch of petitions just on the eve of the polling on May 10. The poll results will be declared on May 13.

A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna also said the decision of scrapping of the four per cent quota for Muslims in 2B category of the 'Other Backward Castes' and granting benefits of increased quota to Vokkaligas and Lingayats in admissions and appointments to government jobs will not be implemented till May 9 after the state government sought time to file its reply. At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Karnataka government, said he will be filing the reply, which is prepared and is a bulky document on a batch of the pleas during the day.

"I will be filing it today but the problem is I (solicitor general) am in personal difficulty as arguing before the constitution bench hearing pleas related to same-sex marriage. Kindly put the matter for some other day", he told the bench. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioners, opposed the request for adjournment by Mehta and said the hearing has already been deferred four times.

Mehta said the interim order passed by the court is already in the petitioners' favour.