Andhra HC strikes down quota for Muslims

The chief justice of a seven-judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh high court, Mr A R Dave on Monday struck down as ‘unsustainable’ the state law providing 4% reservation in educational institutions and jobs for 15 Muslim groups deemed backward by the state government.
The bench described findings of the AP Backward Classes Commission — on which the quota law had been based — as ‘unscientific’. Within hours of the verdict, chief minister K Rosaiah said his government would move Supreme Court in appeal and vowed to restore the ‘AP Reservation in Favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007′.

The Times of India writes in its News that “In a 5-2 majority ruling, the court found that the Commission neither evolved any criteria nor published these before inviting objections. It had merely stated it had followed the two criteria evolved by the Mandal Commission for identification of (Socially Economic Backward Classes) SEBCs among non-Hindu community.
Chief Justice Dave, speaking for himself and Justices A Gopala Reddy, V Eswaraiah and G Raghuram, faulted the enactment and said it was religion-specific and potentially encouraged conversions and was thus unsustainable.
The bench found fault with the commission for its excessive reliance on data collated by the Anthropological Survey of India. That data, the court ruled, was meant for determining the profile of the Indian population and not for deciding on affirmative action for Muslims. The procedural error committed by the commission was fatal to its report and its consequent recommendation, the judges said.
"The fast track approach adopted by the commission was nothing but a non-scientific method," Justice Dave said. It was neither "legal nor sustainable", he declared. “

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