Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 9 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday will hear the central government’s petition challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict quashing 4.5 percent reservation for the minorities in central educational institutions and jobs.

The apex court bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice J.S. Khehar will take up for hearing the government’s petition that contests the quashing of the reservation by the high court.

The petition contended that 4.5 percent reservation as a sub-quota within 27 percent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) was not exclusively for the Muslims but for the minorities as a whole.

The high court May 28 quashed that 4.5 percent sub-quota reservation created through the issuance of an office memorandum Dec 22, 2011.

The high court observed that the issuance of the office memorandum for creating the sub-quota was rooted in religious basis than any other constitutional consideration.

The high court’s Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur (since elevated as a judge of the apex court) and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, while quashing the memorandum, held that the sub-quota was created only on religious grounds and the government did not justify classification of religious minorities as a homogeneous group or as more backward classes deserving some special treatment.

Holding that the central government had entirely relied upon the Sachar Committee report on the socio-economic status of Muslims while creating the 4.5 percent sub-quota of reservation for the minorities, the high court said that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians do not form a homogeneous group but a heterogeneous group.