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Landing a fresh blow to Centre, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the latter’s plea to seek a stay over 4.5 percent sub quota for minorities, here on Wednesday. The two- judge bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice J.S. Khehar questioned the creation of the 4.5 percent sub quota for minorities and rejected Centre’s “relevant” dossier that had attempted to justify such a quota. The apex court, which had on Monday refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court order quashing the 4.5 per cent sub- quota for minorities within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in central educational institutions, had posted the matter for hearing for today. Additional Solicitor General Gourab Banerji on Tuesday mentioned the issue and placed the documents before the court. The apex court had also expressed its unhappiness that the Centre was blaming the High Court when it had itself failed to produce documents to support its case. The Congress-led UPA government had announced the sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for socially and educationally backward people belonging to minority communities on December 22, 2011, ahead of key assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab . It envisaged carving this sub-quota out of the existing 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Many political parties, including the BJP have objected to this. On May 28 this year, an Andhra Pradesh High Court's division bench had struck down the government's sub-quota for minorities, and held that the Centre acted in a "casual manner". The HC said that the government Office Memorandum (OM) creating the sub-quota was based on religious grounds and not on any other intelligible consideration.

Blow to Centre as SC rejects stay plea on minority sub quota