Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Indian Court Strikes Down Religious Groups' Backward Class Subquota
Last December, the government of India announced the creation of a 4.5% sub-quota for economically and socially disadvantaged non-Hindu minorities-- Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians-- within the existing 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) set-asides for government jobs and education. (See prior posting.) Now, according to a report yesterday by the Economic Times, the Andhra Pradesh high court has struck down the sub-quota. It held that a sub-quota cannot be based on purely religious grounds. It said that "Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) do not form a homogeneous group." The sub-quota was widely seen as a political ploy to attract Muslim votes in legislative assembly elections that were upcoming at the time the sub-quota was announced. Indian Express reports that Minority Affairs and Law Minister Salman Khurshid says the court's decision will be appealed.