Get court order on OBC quota, 9th Schedule rectified: Paswan

New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) Criticising the judicial verdicts on Ninth Schedule, OBC quota issue and terming Muslims as non-minorities, the Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan today said the UPA government being committed to social justice and secularism would get them rectified.

Mr Paswan told reporters here that at the UPA-Left meeting this evening, he would take up these issues and emphasise that measures should be taken to get amended the Supreme Court's verdict that even the acts placed under 9th Schedule of the Constitution were open to judicial review. He said that getting it rectified was of far reaching consequence in order to protect issues like reservation and land reforms from judicial scrutiny.

Stating that the Supreme Court's judgement staying the 27 per cent reservation for OBC students in the higher educational institutions had adversely impacted the backward caste students, he demanded that a larger bench of the Supreme Court be moved against it. Pointing out that a nine-judge bench had given verdict in favour of implementation of the Mandal Commission's recommendations in jobs, he said that it indicated a conflict within the judiciary. He also demanded a caste-based census to get the data on OBCs.

Criticising the single judge order of the Allahabad High Court terming Muslims as a non-minority community in Uttar Pradesh, he said that in UP, Muslims constitute about 21 to 23 per cent of the population, hence they were in minority in the state. He wondered on what grounds the High Court had termed Muslims as a non-minority community in UP.

Pointing out that the UPA government's stand that all the options were open for it to ensure social justice and secularism, Mr Paswan said various options would be weighed at the meeting. However, he denied that the government was moving towards a confrontation with the judiciary.

Mr Paswan said these verdicts of the courts' had induced a feeling among dalits and backward community that their interests were not be being protected. He demanded that an Indian Judicial Service be launched just like IAS, IPS and IFS and an autonomous Judicial Service Commission select judges on the basis of merit just like UPSC does for IAS, IPS and IFS.

UNI