The Hindu : New Delhi News : Muslim quota: High Court asked to dispose of petitions by Oct. 31

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Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
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Muslim quota: High Court asked to dispose of petitions by Oct. 31

J. Venkatesan

Supreme Court extends stay on new admissions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended its interim order restraining the Andhra Pradesh Government from making new admissions to educational institutions under the four per cent Muslim quota for 2007-2008.

While passing this order, a Bench of the Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran asked the Andhra Pradesh High Court to dispose of the writ petitions challenging the validity of the 4 per cent Muslim quota law by October 31.

The Bench passed this order after hearing senior counsel Harish Salve and K. Ramakrishna Reddy for the petitioners and Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati and senior counsel Indira Jaising for the State Government.

The Bench said if the High Court was not in a position to dispose of the writ petitions, it could pass a final interim order. The order on stay of new admissions passed by the apex court would remain in operation till an alternative order was passed by the High Court, the Bench said.

The State Government in its response to the special leave petition challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s interim order refusing to stay the implementation of the State law maintained that the law providing for 4 per cent reservation to Muslims was based on careful identification of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes. It said that the sub categorisation of SEdBCs of Muslims was not based on religion alone.

The petitioners, T. Muralidhar Rao and others, in their rejoinder submitted that the Backward Classes Commission had not notified the criteria for identifying the backward classes.

On the face of the recommendation of the Commission’s report, it clearly showed that the Commission did not conduct a proper survey but just adopted the report of Advisor Krishnan.

They pointed out that Mr Krishnan’s report was a compilation of academic data and it was not based on any enquiry. The identification of Backward Classes was specifically entrusted to the Backward Classes Commission.

The Muslim population in the State was 9.2 per cent but the percentage of Muslims in employment was 9.26 per cent. “Backwardness is a relative criteria; it has to be compared with rest of the society within the State, then only the backwardness can be decided among the people,” they said.

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