Shabbir Ali demands all-party meet on 4% Muslim quota case

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Friday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao convene an all-party meeting to discuss legal strategy to defend 4% Muslim reservation case in Supreme Court.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Shabbir Ali accused the Telangana Government of adopting a careless approach to the case pertaining to 4% Muslim reservation case pending in the Supreme Court. “I regret to say that no representative from the Telangana Government was present in the Supreme Court when the matter came up for hearing on February 29. I was told that the Telangana Government had submitted an intervention petition. However, no counsel or representative of Telangana Government was present when the issue was taken up. Even the Chief Justice informally enquired about the Telangana Government’s representation as it needs to get implead as a respondent in view of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Led by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, a Constitutional Bench comprising Justice Fakir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Justice R. Bhanumathi and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, has been formed to hear the case on 4% Muslim reservation in Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana).
The former minister said the Muslim quota, which was given by previous Congress regime in 2004, has benefited over 10 lakh socially and economically backward Muslim students so far. A non-serious approach by the State Government in defending the case might hurt thousands of poor Muslims across the Telangana.
“The next hearing in the case is scheduled to be held on April 18, 2016. Therefore, I strongly demand that you convene an all party meeting to discuss and finalise the legal strategy to be adopted to defend 4% Muslim reservation case in the Supreme Court and take appropriate action to represent the case on behalf of Telangana Government,” Shabbir Ali demanded. (NSS)