Supreme Court declines to stay Andhra HC order on minority quota

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant a stay on the Andhra Pradesh High Court order that struck down the 4.5 percent sub-quota for minorities.

A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar declined to put a stay on the Andhra High Court order quashing a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities within the 27 percent reservation for OBCs in educational institutions and government jobs.

The bench reportedly chided the government for filing an appeal without any supporting documents. It has ordered Attorney General GE Vahanvati to appear before the court again on Wednesday with all relevant documents.

"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," India Today quoted the bench as saying.

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

A 4.5 percent sub-quota for socially and educationally backward classes of citizens belonging to minority communities for central educational institutions and jobs was announced by the Centre ahead of the Assembly elections in five states in December, 2011.

A division bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh last month struck down the office memorandum and noted it was based on religious grounds and not on any other intelligible consideration.

The government however maintains that the sub-quota was not provided on the basis of religion but that of backwardness.

Justifying it, Khurshid had said a few days back that the government will challenge High Court's order striking down its proposal.

"Sub quota is not meant for any particular religious group but for minorities and 4.5% reservation is proportional to the number of backwards in the country. The Centre will file a Special Leave Petition in this regard in the apex court soon," Law Minister Salman Khurshid had earlier said.