Plea for SC/ST quota in Karnataka bar serious but don't want division on caste, religious lines: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the plea by certain Karnataka lawyers seeking reservation for lawyers from marginalised communities in bar bodies is a serious one..However, the Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh added in the same breath that the while diversity in bar bodies is important, the Court is conscious of the fact that it cannot allow such bodies to become political platforms divided along caste and religion."Issue is serious and we have to deal with it.. (But) we do not want bar to be divided on caste and religious lines. We don't want that and we will not allow it to become a political platform. Let's be clear about that," the Court said..The Court was hearing petitions filed by the All India Backward Classes Advocates Foundation and Karnataka SC/ST Backward Classes and Minorities Advocates Federation seeking reservation for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) categories in the governing council of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru (AAB).The petitioners had initially approached the Karnataka High Court seeking parity citing the recent Supreme Court order that directed AAB to ensure representation of women lawyers in its governing council by reserving at least 30 percent of seats.However, the High Court rejected the plea and asked the petitioners to move the Supreme Court instead.This led to the present plea before the top court..Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan, appearing for the petitioners, said that no member from SC/ST community has been a member of Governing Council of AAB for the last 50 years/"The question is do under-represented community get affirmative action in bar associations. For 50 years, no member has been there in the bar association from SC ST community. It is serious. It is a question of access," Divan said.The Court initially remarked that it will not entertain the issue since it could open a pandora's box and reservation for women was something which the Court directed for urban areas. The same may not be possible when it comes to reservation for SC/STs, it said."We will not entertain this since it will open a pandoras box. See when Union government gives reservation, they go with the report of expert committee. Presence of women lawyers is something we did in urban areas. (In this case) We have to appoint a committee to collect data on pan-India basis to see who are under-represented and marginalized. Today we do not have data and thus handicapped," Justice Kant said.However, Divan persisted and argued that diversity is essential so that more people from such communities come into the legal fold."Ultimately, the profession needs role models. Diversity is an important consideration. Thus they have to come into the fold. For so many years there is no representation," she said.She also highlighted practices from jurisdictions like Australia."We have gone far ahead of all these jurisdictions. We are nobody to comment on them.. but we can assure you that legal community in this country including those who are not well qualified, MPs, MLAs are extremely conscious of inadequate representation," the Court said.It eventually agreed to hear the matter and said that it will take up the matter with another pending case concerning bar associations.Both these matters will be heard on February 17..[Read Live Coverage]