Should Indian Muslims be given reservation in education and jobs?
HC quashes reservation ordinance for Muslims
The Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday received a setback with High Court quashing an ordinance providing for five per cent reservations for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions.
Disapproving religion-based reservation, a five-member Bench, headed by acting Chief Justice Bilal Nazki, found fault with the procedure adopted by the state Backward Classes Commission whose report formed the basis for the quota order.
“The entire process is vitiated by arbitrariness and failure to adopt reasonable criteria. Thus the reservation act is ultra vires of the Constitution,” Justice Nazki said.
In its 93 page verdict, based on a batch of writ petitions by some BC organisations and students, the Bench unanimously felt that the BC Commission did not do its job properly and failed to evolve any reasonable criteria for categorising Muslims as Backward Classes
The government had in May this year approved a report of the Backward Classes Commission recommending inclusion of Muslims in the list of Backward Classes by creating a separate category.
The quota ordinance was issued in June categorising Muslims, who constitute 9.2 per cent of the state’s total population of 7.5 crore, as BC ‘E’ group for the purpose of reservations.
The creamy layer among Muslims, with an annual income above 2.5 lakh, were excluded from the purview of reservations. The Reservation Bill was adopted by the state Assembly on October 5 during the monsoon session.
we should be inclusive otherwisw how 260 million dalits and 140 million muslims
can be part of the country? 500 million people out of 1 billion is too many to ignore.
While I am all for positivie discrimination, this was purely a political move.
A lot of muslim run colleges in Andhra Pradesh (with rights to decide on their own admissions, as in the rest of the country) have difficulty in getting good muslim candidates. Reservations will not change this.
Conceptually, a reservation system is workable when it cannot be twisted. One cannot (easily) change one's age or gender or language or race or in India, caste, and hence reservations based on these can work. But religion is something that can be changed in India and hence reservations based on that cannot work well. What would stop me from converting to Islam for a college education or job and then revert?
reservations and quotas may be temporarily necessary but in the long term such assistance based on economic criteria makes more sense all around. If the student is smart enough, he/she should be able to do higher studies even if the parents cannot afford