Maintaining the stay imposed by it last year on admissions in professional and educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh under a controversial law providing four per cent reservations to Muslims, the Supreme Court on Friday reiterated that none of the candidates would be given admission till any final order was passed by it.Following this the three-member Bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, posted the matter for hearing after vacations in July. Adjourning the matter, the Bench said the state may go ahead with the counseling of students for providing admission to the educational institutions.In its petition, the Andhra Government submitted that the reservation sought to be provided to backward Muslims was constitutionally valid and hence, it be allowed to implement the quota policy formulated under the AP Reservation in Favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007.On April 29, a seven-judge Bench of the High Court had restrained the Government from implementing the four per cent quota for backward Muslims until the bunch of writ petitions filed before it was disposed of.The state, in its appeal, has said the Act was brought in after taking into consideration the report of the Andhra Pradesh Commission of Backward Classes on the basis of which the backward Muslims were identified for the purpose of extending the benefits of reservation. The state submitted that the four per cent reservation sought to be extended to the backward Muslims would not in any manner exceed the 50 per cent reservation quota cap fixed by the apex court in the Indra Sawhney case.According to the state Government, the benefit was sought to be extended as several Muslim groups like dhobis, fakeer, quereshi, hajm, turka kash are traditional occupation groups similar to their counterparts in the Hindu community who have been extended similar benefits.
