INDIA BUSINESS WORLD SEPTEMBER (16^th - 30^th) 2007
The Month that was ...

SUPREME COURT STAYS AP'S 4% MUSLIM QUOTA

IN A setback for the AP government, the Supreme Court restrained it from making further admissions into the educational and professional colleges under the law providing for 4% reservations to Muslims.

While staying the religion quota, the apex court questioned the legality of religion-based quota and methodology for determination of the Muslim community as a backward class.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan, Justice R V Raveendran and Justice V S Sirpurkar ordered, "there shall be no further admissions".It asked the government to maintain status quo on the issue of admissions of Muslims students under quota law. However, the court said that the right of those already admitted under such reservation policy shall not be affected.

The court passed the order two days before the last date for such admissions which was fixed as September 30. It posted the hearing on October 5 to examine the legality of religion-based quota provided for the first time by AP.

The court was hearing a petition moved by Sriteja Kamarsu and T Murlidhar Rao challenging the state government decision. During the course of hearing, the court questioned the reservation policy for Muslims as a community. "Such quota should have been provided not as Muslims but as socially and educationally backward classes" remarked Justice Raveendran.

The bench also wondered whether quota could be extended based on religion or community under the provisions of Constitution. "We can understand, the classification of Backward Classes as a whole and consequent reservation for such group," the court said.

It expressed its dismay at the categorisation of sub sects into 'socially and educationally backward classes' and 'other Muslim groups'. Fourteen sub-sects have been put under SEBC and the 15th referred to as Other Muslim groups. It implied that many other sub sects will get benefit under the quota law, observed the court.

The court also wanted to know the quantum of reservation for OBCs in the state. When it was brought to the notice that it was 25%, the court said that adding of 4% more has pushed the total reservation limit in the state to the upper ceiling of reservation that is 50% of the total seats.

Senior Counsel Harish Salve appearing for anti-quota petitioners said that religion based reservation will have wide scale ramifications for the country. It is entirely communal and violate of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution, said Salve.