‘Court stay will impede Muslim integration into mainstream’

>The Bombay High Court has observed that an interim stay on reservation in education for the 50 sub-castes of Muslims specified by Maharashtra government “will certainly impede the process of drawing the Muslim youths into the mainstream of secular education.” In its judgment on Friday, the court refused to grant interim stay on Maharashtra government’s ordinance giving five per cent reservation to Muslims in education.

But the court granted interim stay to reservation for specified Muslims sub-castes in government jobs on the grounds that “the State has no power to breach the ceiling limit of 50 per cent.” It also said that five per cent additional educational reservation could not be imposed on private and unaided educational institutes as it would be an unreasonable restriction on their fundamental right.

While relying on Sachar Committee report, Justice Ranganath Mishra Committee report, report of the Maharashtra State Minority Commission and Dr. Mehmood-ur-Rehman Study Group report, the court said there was quantifiable data for the formation of the 'Special Backward Category' consisting of the 50 sub-castes of the Muslim community.

“In the present case, the material relied upon by the State government for determining the backwardness of the Specified Communities of Muslims, at least prima facie, spells out a case for the existence of an extraordinary situation, in which the State government was justified in exceeding the ceiling limit of 50 per cent by another 5 per cent insofar as reservations in educational institutions is concerned,” the court said in its order.

'Not unconstitutional' The court denied the petitioners’ contention that reservation was granted to Muslims only on the basis of their religion, and was thus against the spirit of the Constitution.

“In the first place, the impugned Ordinance is clear, inasmuch as the reservation is for certain specified communities from out of Muslims and not for members of the Muslim community in general or in entirety. Secondly, both Articles 15(1) and 16(2) prohibit discrimination against any citizen on grounds only of religion. Since the State Government has relied upon the relevant indicators for the purposes of determining backwardness of 50 sub-castes of Muslim community, we see no infringement of Articles 15(1) and 16(2) of the Constitution of India,” the court said.