Reserved seats, in plain terms
This affects nearly every applicant in Karnataka. Shares below are for government seats; KEA publishes the exact seat matrix each year.
SC
about 15%
Scheduled Castes
ST
about 3%
Scheduled Tribes
Category-1
4%
The most backward communities listed by the state
The creamy-layer income exclusion does not apply to Category-1, so a higher family income does not remove eligibility.
2A
15%
Other Backward Classes — the largest OBC sub-group
2B
4%
Backward classes among Muslims
3A
4%
Backward classes including Vokkaliga and others listed
3B
5%
Backward classes including Lingayat and others listed
EWS
10%
Economically weaker sections not covered by SC, ST or OBC
- ›Categories 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B together account for about 32% of government seats.
- ›A caste or community certificate issued by a Karnataka Tahsildar is what establishes your category. Apply for it well before counselling — a missing certificate is a common reason students lose a reserved seat.
- ›An income certificate is not required to claim a reserved seat under SC, ST, Category-1, 2A, 2B, 3A or 3B. It is required separately for most scholarships.
- ›Government-quota (CET) seats also require 7 years of study in Karnataka. General Merit seats carry no domicile requirement but have higher cut-offs.
- ›Reserved-category candidates usually get a lower minimum-marks requirement too — 40% instead of 45% in PCM for engineering, for example.
- ›You may have heard that a 2022 state law raised SC to 17% and ST to 7%. That law is caught in the Supreme Court 50% overall-cap question, and admissions have continued on the older 15% and 3%. Whatever the news says, the KEA seat matrix for the current year is what actually applies.