New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused
to entertain a plea challenging Centre`s decision to carve out
a 4.5 percent sub-quota for minorities from within the
existing 27 percent reservation for other backward classes
(OBCs) in educational institutions.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad asked the
petitioner to approach the high court against the government`s
decision to give reservation to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians,
Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) within the 27 percent OBC
quota.
Petitioner Vikrant Yadav sought the apex court`s
intervention into the matter, pleading that the Centre`s
decision was arbitrary and illegal and it should be set aside.
"The said creation of a 4.5 percent sub-quota for
minorities within the existing 27 percent reservation for OBCs
is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory, divisive and not in
public interest and is also violative of Fundamental Rights,"
Yadav said in his petition.
He said the reservation cannot be given on the basis of
religion and the socially and educationally backward classes
of minority communities are already included in the 27 percent
reservation provided to the OBCs.
"The present resolution has been passed without
ascertaining whether the religious or linguistic minorities
are actually in the need of any such preferential reservation
within the OBC quota," the petition said.
The Centre on December 22 last year had decided to carve
out the sub-quota for minorities from within the existing
reservation for OBCs and had notified Muslims, Sikhs,
Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) as minority
communities.
The decision was taken on the basis of recommendation of
the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic
Minorities.
PTI
