HYDERABAD, 22 September 2004 — The Andhra Pradesh High Court yesterday set aside the government order earmarking five percent reservations for Muslims in educational institutions and public employment.
A five-member bench, comprising justices B. Sudershan Reddy, J. Chelameswar, Ghulam Mohammed, A. Gopal Reddy and K.C. Bhanu, held that the entire process adopted by the government in issuing the GO providing reservations for Muslims by declaring them to be a backward class was illegal.
The survey report of the Commissionerate of Minorities Welfare could not have been acted upon because it was not scientific, the judges observed. The bench also said that consultation with the Backward Classes Commission was compulsory and without such consultation, the GO was illegal.
War Against Naxalites
A coordinated approach and strategy on tackling the Naxalites, including the process of peace talks initiated by Andhra Pradesh government with People’s War and Janashakti groups, was mooted at the one-day meeting of chief ministers and home ministers of nine Naxalite-affected states convened by union Home Minister Shivraj Patil yesterday.
Though Patil reiterated the view that the states were free to engage Naxalite outfits in peace dialogue within the framework of the constitution and offered central government’s help and assistance, the meeting is understood to have suggested that a clear-cut national policy be evolved on the issue, after some states made a vociferous demand in this regard.
