The State government has made a strong pitch for the Central government’s nod to its Bill providing for enhancement of reservation to Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes in admission to educational institutions and government services.
The Government had sent detailed representation to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs including the clarifications that were sought by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). In the clarification sought by the DoPT on the 50% cap on the reservation, the government quoted a Supreme Court judgement which said reservation under clause (4) of Article 16 might exceed 50% of the appointments or posts by making out a case showing existence of exceptional circumstances for exceeding the limit.
“If a State wants to exceed 50% of reservation then it is required to base its decision on quantifiable data,” the SC laid down in its judgements relating to M. Nagaraju and others versus Government of India and other cases. To illustrate this, the State said share of the STs in the State increased from 7.11% in the united Andhra Pradesh to 9.08% after the formation of the new State. Likewise, the share of Muslims increased from 9.56% to 12.68%.
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The commissions headed by retired bureaucrats G. Sudhir and S. Chellappa and the State BC Commission headed by B.S. Ramulu examined the issue in detail. Data gathered by the BC Commission showed that Muslims were below State average in literacy and employment and were deprived.
Given that more than 82% of the Muslim population had already been categorised as backward, there might be an increase in the reservation percentage to 12 or a minimum of 9 based on their social and educational backwardness. The government quoted the Supreme Court judgement which held that while 50% should be the rule, it was not necessary to put out of consideration certain extraordinary situation inherent to the great diversity of the country and people.
“It might happen that in far flung and remote areas, the people inhabiting those areas might, on account of their being out of main stream national life, need to be treated in a different way and some relaxation in this strict rule might become imperative,” the government quoted the SC as saying in defence of its decision to hike quota for the STs.
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