Andhra Pradesh Muslim quota gets apex court nod
By IANSThursday, March 25, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday temporarily allowed job quota for backward Muslims in Andhra Pradesh, but left a final decision on the matter to a constitution bench.
With this, the Andhra Pradesh government is likely to go ahead with its proposal of reserving four percent of government jobs for Muslims.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices J.M. Panchal and B.S. Chauhan, has referred the issue to the constitution bench to examine the validity of the decision.
The order was given on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the state government against an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court that had earlier struck down the provision as being unconstitutional.
The order from the apex court comes a day after Minorities Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the central government would help Andhra Pradesh in implementing the quota if the Supreme Court directed it to do so.
