Andhra High Court reject sub-quota for minorities

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday rejected the creation of a 4.5% sub quota for religious minorities from out of the 27% reserved for OBCs.

A division bench of the High Court comprising chief justice Madan B Lokur and justice PV Sanjay Kumar struck down the Central government's order to give reservation to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) within the 27 percent OBC quota.

The bench declared that this action of the Central government was based upon religious lines and not on any other intelligible consideration. The bench opined that there was no rationale or empirical data to justify such an action.

According to The Hindu, the bench expressed deep anguish at the casual manner in which the issue was dealt by the Central government and said that it had exceeded Constitutional boundaries.

Based on a recommendation by the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, the cabinet had in December last year approved the carving out of a sub-quota of 4.5 percent for reservation in government jobs and university seats.

The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cleared the proposal ahead of the schedule of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The UPA Government was subsequently criticised for not implementing the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee and the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission and bringing a sub-quota of 4.5 percent for poll benefits.

The Ranganath Mishra Commission had recommended implementation of 10 percent reservation for Muslims and five percent for other minorities based on the socially and economically backward criteria.