Telangana: Kapu quota Bill had crossed cap

Hyderabad: The Union home ministry has rejected the Kapu Reservation Bill of Andhra Pradesh because it disregards the Supreme Court’s decision to cap reservation at 50 per cent.

The Telangana wing of the BJP is against reservation for Muslims because they say it is based on religion which is not permissible under the Constitution. K. Laxman, state president of the BJP, told the media recently that the TRS was unnecessarily tagging the issue of reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with Muslim reservations.

He said that the demand for reservation for Muslims is based on data gathered in a most unscientific manner by the TRS government and will not be sustained before the law.

C. Damodar Reddy, who practices in the Hyderabad High Court and who appeared in the Muslim Reservation case in 2005, says that Parliament was empowered to amend the Constitution to provide reservation in view of the demands from the various state governments across the country.

He said that Article 15(4) of the Constitution empowers the Union government to make special provisions for advancement of Backward Classes. Similarly, Article 16 provides for equality of opportunity in matters of employment or appointment to any post under the State.

He said that Clause 2 of Article 16 lays down that no citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them be discriminated against in respect of any employment or office under the state. The issue of four per cent reservation for Muslims is already pending before a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court and validation of 69 per cent reservation in Tamil Nadu under Article 31(B) is also pending before the apex court for judicial review, he said.