Author: Shaik Ahmed Ali
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/andhra-muslims-get-job-quota-courts-cry-foul/58076-3.html
Despite ongoing legal battles, Andhra Pradesh
has started implementing 4 per cent quota for Muslims in government jobs.
The state government, on Saturday, handed letters to 10 Muslim candidates
appointing them as engineers in the Energy Department.
Shaik Gugudu Vali and Shaik Yasmeen are among
the first beneficiaries of the new job-quota for Muslims. As per the amended
Muslim Reservation Act, 'Shaiks' have been classified as socially and economically
backward. There are thirteen other Muslim castes who will get the same benefit
as the Sheiks.
An earlier attempt by the Congress government
to give 5 per cent reservation to Muslims was challenged in court. It responded
by reducing it to 4 per cent, and creating castes among Muslims by bringing
in a new legislation.
"We brought in another legislation. Lot
of work has gone behind this legislation and we started giving reservation
in both educational institutions and in employment," Chief Minister YS
Rajasekhara Reddy said.
Now, even this new move has been challenged
in court. However, the government claims that the ongoing cases in the High
Court and Supreme Court are not related to job quota.
"We took reports from legal experts including
the Advocate General and they told us that in High Court and Supreme Court
only a part of the Act has been challenged and it's confined to reservation
in educational institutions and not employment," Minorities Welfare Minister
Mohammad Ali Shabbir said.
Meanwhile, legal and constitutional experts
are not buying the minister's argument.
"According to Articles 15 and 16, there
can be no reservation based on caste, creed and religion," Supreme Court
advocate ML Lahoty said.
But that is not the only controversy surrounding
the Act. Many feel that most of the beneficiaries are neither poor nor backward
like Shaik Gugudu Vali, who said, "I have five family members. All are
engineers. One is working in Vidyut Souda, one in Hindustan Aeronautics, one
is a software engineer and another one did her B-Tech, but she is housewife."
The government has also issued a notification
to all its departments asking them to fill 4 per cent vacancies with Muslims,
this even as the courts are yet to give the verdict.
