Supreme Court: Don't comment on quota, It's sub judice

The Supreme Court Tuesday said public functionaries need to exercise control and refrain from making statements on the issue of 4% reservation for Muslims in Karnataka, as the matter is pending before the top court. A bench of justices KM Joseph, BV Nagarathna and Ahsanuddin Amanullah orally expressed its displeasure over the public comments being made after the matter was raised by senior advocate Dushyant Dave.

The senior lawyer brought the court's attention to comments made by Union home minister Amit Shah on the issue during the Karnataka election campaign.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, Dave sought initiation of contempt proceedings. "Every day the home minister says 'we have scrapped reservations for Muslims'. It is contempt of court, according to me," Dave argued.


To this, Justice Nagarathna verbally observed, "If this is really true, why are such statements being made?" She added that the public functionaries need to exercise some control and refrain from making such statements, especially when the matter is sub judice.