Rajasekhar Reddy

Hyderabad, July 4: Andhra Pradesh will come out with a fresh ordinance providing 4 per cent reservation for backward Muslims in education and government jobs.

The move, cleared at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy today, comes weeks after Islamic seminaries in the state issued a fatwa against classifying Muslims into castes to provide quotas.

Fifteen sub-groups identified by the Andhra Pradesh Backward Class Commission will benefit from the quota, which will come into effect from this academic year. The “creamy layer” principle will be applied according to the guidelines laid down by the government.

“With this quota, we hope to cover about 80 to 85 per cent of the Muslims in the state,” Reddy said.

According to the 2001 census, the community accounts for 9.2 per cent of Andhra’s population of over 7 crore.

The commission’s report, which picked the 15 socially, educationally and financially backward Muslim groups, slotted them in what it called an E category of OBCs.

The A, B, C and D categories have a combined reservation of 25 per cent, the Scheduled Castes have 14 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes 7 per cent.

Reservation for Muslims was a key poll promise of the Congress. Within months of coming to power in May 2004, the government issued an ordinance for 5 per cent quota. But Andhra Pradesh High Court struck it down in November 2005, dubbing it unconstitutional and arbitrary.

The court’s main objection was that quotas cannot be provided on the basis of religion. The Supreme Court refused to stay the high court order in January 2006.

The government hopes it has found a legal remedy.

“Instead of religion-based reservations, we will provide quotas for Muslims based on backwardness. This is in tune with the observations of the high court while dismissing the earlier ordinance,” information minister A. Ramanarayana Reddy said.

The total quota will now touch 50 per cent, the ceiling set by the Supreme Court.

The decision could anger Muslim religious leaders who have opposed moves to classify the community into groups. “Muslims are always one and cannot be divided,” said the high priest of Mecca Masjid.

Last month, six powerful seminaries that have influence on at least two-thirds of the 68 lakh Muslims in the state said all are equal in Islam.

“Muslims all over the world are equal. There is no distinction of caste, colour and race among them. Therefore, creating distinction for reservations is improper under the Shariat,” said the fatwa from Jamia Nizamia, the 125-year-old Islamic university in the city.