Centre moves SC over sub-quota for minorities

The Union government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Andhra Pradesh high court order quashing the 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the 27 percent Other Backward Classes quota in central educational institutions such as IITs.

The apex court will hear the government plea on Monday.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar will examine the Centre's appeal, which has contended that the high court had taken an erroneous view in striking down the provision, despite the fact that the decision to provide the quota was done after an extensive survey.

The high court on May 28 had held that the Centre acted in a "casual manner" in granting the 4.5 percent sub-quota to minorities, carving it out of 27 percent OBC reservation.

It had said the Office Memorandum creating the sub-quota was based on religious grounds and not on any other intelligible consideration.

The December 22, 2011, OM for a 4.5 percent sub-quota 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 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, the bench observed while setting aside the sub-quota.

"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," the HC bench had stated

"We must therefore hold that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) do not form a homogeneous group but a heterogeneous group," it had observed.