The Hindu : Front Page : Quota: apex court orders status quo

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Saturday, Dec 17, 2005

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Quota: apex court orders status quo

J. Venkatesan

The position on Muslim appointments and admissions to continue till January 4

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered status quo till January 4, 2006, on public appointments and admissions made in educational institutions by the Andhra Pradesh Government on the basis of an ordinance providing 5 per cent quota for Muslims.

A Bench of Justice Ruma Pal and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan extended the status quo on a plea made by State counsel Manoj Saxena that the High Court had already ordered status quo till December 27 and that it should continue till the date of hearing on January 4.

Senior counsel K. Ramakrishna Reddy, appearing for students, opposed grant of stay on the ground that admission of about 300 students in medical colleges was made under the Muslim quota subject to the result of the writ petition. If stay of the judgment was not granted, the affected students admitted in the `payment seats' could be admitted to free seats, he said.

Stay opposed

Senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani, appearing for respondent B. Archana Reddy (one of the petitioners before the High Court), also opposed stay of the judgment, but he said status quo could be continued till the date of hearing. After hearing counsel, the Bench said: "Status quo granted by the High Court will continue till January 4, 2006," and directed listing of the case for hearing that day.

In its Special Leave Petition assailing the November 7 judgment, the State submitted that the High Court ought to have noticed that the commission had conducted extensive survey, examined several documents, heard objections and submitted its report.

In these circumstances it could not be said that the commission had not undertaken the survey of the whole population of the State.

Chaos alleged

The SLP pointed out that none of the objections before the commission had made any complaint or requested for guidelines or criterion to consider Muslims as socially and educationally backward or not. While so the High Court was not right in coming to the conclusion that the failure of the commission to notify its criterion or material collected by it made the report not transparent.

It said in view of the impugned judgment there had been chaos in the administration, particularly among Muslim students admitted in educational institutions under the reservation quota pursuant to the ordinance and as such their fate and career was in jeopardy. The SLP sought quashing of the judgment and an interim stay of its operation.

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