PM panel seeks details on Muslim judicial officers

The committee, headed by former chief justice of the Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar, has written to all chief justices of the high courts to provide the details. Sources said the high courts had administrative jurisdiction over the lower judiciary and hence the query had been sent to them.

They also clarified that the query did not relate to any appointment in the high courts and the SC as these two are separate constitutional entities. In the lower judiciary there was an examination akin to that of the service commissions and hence the query had been sought for the lower judiciary, said the sources.

‘‘When a country-wide census has to be taken on the socio-economic-educational status of a particular community, queries of similar nature have to be sent to various walks of life and judiciary is not different’’, they said, adding that the query had nothing to do with the judiciary per se.

Justice Sachar Committee has been given an extension and by October it is expected to submit its report to the Centre on the ‘‘social and educational status’’ of Muslims in India. This rather sensitive committee is in fact a forerunner to the reservation of about 27 per cent of seats for the OBCs in educational institutions in the country. The committee is also expected to collect data from the army, judiciary and other departments but has not gone into the ‘‘unorganised sector’’ where too various communities and castes, including linguistic groups, have sizeable presence.