Centre to challenge HC sub-quota order

The Centre will challenge in the Supreme Court the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court striking down its 4.5 per cent sub-quota to minorities within OBC reservation in central educational institutions and jobs saying that the decision was based on religious grounds.

'We will go to the Supreme Court by way of a special leave petition (SLP) against the Andhra Pradesh high court order,' Union minister for law and minority affairs Salman Khurshid told reporters here.

He said that the government would like to address the matter with a 'sense of urgency'.

'The attorney general will come only next week and then we can take a call on how to go on it. We want to go as quickly as possible,' Khurshid said. The high court had observed yesterday that no evidence was shown to it to justify the classification of these religious minorities as a homogeneous group or as more backward classes deserving some special treatment.

Khurshid, however, said that while the court has rightly stated that community cannot be given reservation only on the basis of religion, he sought to clarify, 'We have made reservation on a share of backward classes.'

'Yes in the Constitution you cannot make religion the only criteria for giving reservation to a community. Minority is not just a religion. It is also linguistic. The expression of the word minority is both religious and linquistic,' he argued.