On March 25, 2010, the Supreme Court through a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, passed an interim order observing: “The government views certain sections of Muslims as backward and wants to give reservation. What’s wrong with it?”.
The Supreme Court has referred the matter to a constitution bench to decide on the constitutional validity of the Ordinance promulgated by Andhra Pradesh Government. Note that the reservation policy of Andhra Pradesh government uses religion and social backwardness as indicia for identifying beneficiaries of reservation in government jobs and educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh. The decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court is discussed here. The order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has been stayed by the Supreme Court.
However, the Supreme Court refused to allow extension of benefit of reservation to the 15th category of Muslims to which Andhra Ordinance extended, as the social groups were not specified. It appears that the Court is of the view that it is not averse to upholding reservation for Muslims, so long as sufficient justification for extending reservation to identified groups is provided.
The constitution bench is expected to take up the case in August.
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