HC says no to OBC sub-quota for minorities
29 May 2012 3:09 AM GMT
Holding that the Centre acted in a 'casual manner', the Andhra Pradesh high court quashed the 4.5 per cent sub-quota to minorities carved out of 27 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation on Monday. This verdict can affect admissions already made in central educational institutions.
The court verdict has again reignited the quota debate that was one of the contentious issues during Uttar Pradesh assembly election. The Congress took an aggressive stand on the high court judgement. 'We will challenge this verdict in the Supreme Court. Quota for Muslims should be there,' said the Congress minority-cell head Imran Kidwai.
However, the official reaction of the party was much more cautious. 'You cannot react to court judgments until you have perused, read, understood and appreciated ... [We can comment] after we receive copy of the judgment,' the party spokesperson Manish Tewari said in Delhi.
In a setback to the Centre over the sub-quota issue, the court said that the Office Memorandum (OM) creating the sub-quota was based on religious grounds and not on any other consideration.
The 22 December 2011 OM for a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for socially and educationally backward classes of citizens belonging to minority communities out of the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions and jobs was announced by the Centre ahead of the assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) welcomed the high court decision and said that its stand has been vindicated on the Muslim quota issue. 'When this reservation was announced, we had clearly said that it was against the Constitution,' said the BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The BJP had opposed the government's move to give sub-quota move and had charged that it was done to appease minorities.
The bench while setting aside the sub-quota observed that the very use of the words 'belonging to minorities' or 'for minorities' indicates that the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines and not on any other intelligible basis.
Setting aside the OM, a division bench consisting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Sanjay Kumar said, 'In fact, we must express our anguish at the rather casual manner in which the entire issue has been taken up by the central government. No evidence has been shown to us by the learned Assistant Solicitor General to justify the classification of these religious minorities as a homogeneous group or as more backward classes deserving some special treatment. We must, therefore, hold that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians do not form a homogeneous group but a heterogeneous group,' it observed.
According to K Ramakrishna Reddy, senior counsel who argued for the petitioner R Krishnaiah, a backward-caste leader from Andhra Pradesh, the judgement may affect the admissions that have already been made in central educational institutions, such as the IITs.
The court verdict has again reignited the quota debate that was one of the contentious issues during Uttar Pradesh assembly election. The Congress took an aggressive stand on the high court judgement. 'We will challenge this verdict in the Supreme Court. Quota for Muslims should be there,' said the Congress minority-cell head Imran Kidwai.
However, the official reaction of the party was much more cautious. 'You cannot react to court judgments until you have perused, read, understood and appreciated ... [We can comment] after we receive copy of the judgment,' the party spokesperson Manish Tewari said in Delhi.
In a setback to the Centre over the sub-quota issue, the court said that the Office Memorandum (OM) creating the sub-quota was based on religious grounds and not on any other consideration.
The 22 December 2011 OM for a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for socially and educationally backward classes of citizens belonging to minority communities out of the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions and jobs was announced by the Centre ahead of the assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) welcomed the high court decision and said that its stand has been vindicated on the Muslim quota issue. 'When this reservation was announced, we had clearly said that it was against the Constitution,' said the BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The BJP had opposed the government's move to give sub-quota move and had charged that it was done to appease minorities.
The bench while setting aside the sub-quota observed that the very use of the words 'belonging to minorities' or 'for minorities' indicates that the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines and not on any other intelligible basis.
Setting aside the OM, a division bench consisting Chief Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Sanjay Kumar said, 'In fact, we must express our anguish at the rather casual manner in which the entire issue has been taken up by the central government. No evidence has been shown to us by the learned Assistant Solicitor General to justify the classification of these religious minorities as a homogeneous group or as more backward classes deserving some special treatment. We must, therefore, hold that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians do not form a homogeneous group but a heterogeneous group,' it observed.
According to K Ramakrishna Reddy, senior counsel who argued for the petitioner R Krishnaiah, a backward-caste leader from Andhra Pradesh, the judgement may affect the admissions that have already been made in central educational institutions, such as the IITs.
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