Asaduddin Owaisi and Shabbir Ali demand Telangana and Andhra Pradesh CMs to strongly defend 4% Muslim quota in SC

HYDERABAD: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday demanded that the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states respectively hire the services of best legal experts to defend the four per cent reservations being given to economically backward sections among Muslims.

The case is likely to come up for hearing from September 13 before the constitution bench of the Supreme Court. “A large number of socially, economically backward and weaker section Muslims have benefitted immensely from the 4 per cent quota in education especially. It needs to be continued and I urge Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and AP CM Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to engage best of the legal teams to ensure the four per cent quota is continued.

Both the Telugu states have the empirical data of how backward Muslims are and there is a Sudheer Committee report too on the backwardness of Muslims. Both the state governments should pursue the case seriously to ensure the four per cent quota is upheld, he said.

In a related development but separate statement, former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir of the Congress demanded that KCR-government engage a team of senior lawyers to fight the case of 4% Muslim reservation in the Supreme Court.

"The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will be hearing the matter after 12 years. This is a ‘now or never scenario' for everyone. The state government should not take any chances and defend the ongoing 4% Muslim reservation with all relevant facts, statistics and arguments. CM KCR should hire a strong legal team of senior counsels to contest the case in the apex court," he demanded.

Shabbir Ali said he had a detailed discussion with senior counsel in the Supreme Court and former union minister Salman Khursheed at his office in New Delhi on Saturday regarding the 4% Muslim quota case.

Shabbir Ali is one of the petitioners along with Telangana and AP governments to protect reservations given by the then Y S Rajashekar Reddy-led Congress government in 2004. Shabbir Ali, who was a minister in the YSR cabinet, played an important role in giving 5% reservation to Muslims in jobs and education. However, the quota was reduced to 4% following the directions of the AP High Court. This was again challenged in the High Court and was struck down. Later, the state government approached the Supreme Court seeking relief.

The Supreme Court granted the stay on implementation of 4% Muslim reservation on March 25, 2010, and ordered the continuation of quota for 14 categories listed under BC-E Group until further orders and referred the matter to a Constitutional Bench. Shabbir Ali got impleded in the case as a petitioner and is being represented by senior counsel Salman Khurshid.

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is likely to start hearing the cases challenging the constitutional validity of reservation for Economically Weaker Sections and the reservation given for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana) as a Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) on the 13th and 14th September.

Shabbir Ali sought to remind CM KCR that he had promised the Muslims to enhance the reservations from cent to 12% but has not done so far. CM KCR, in the last eight years, did not hold a single meeting with the Law Department, Advocate General or any legal expert on how to defend the 4% Muslim quota in jobs and education. Alleged Shabbir Ali.