HC to set up largest-ever bench

Hyderabad, Jan. 22: The Andhra Pradesh High Court is likely to constitute a seven-member constitution bench to hear a batch of writ petitions filed in support of and against the four per cent reservations to backward groups among Muslim community.
Sources said that this would be the first time that a seven-member bench was being constituted by the AP High Court to hear a case. A larger bench of the High Court comprising Justice Meena Kumari, Justice B. Prakash Rao, Justice D.S.R. Varma, Justice A. Gopal Reddy and Justice V. Eswaraiah, is presently hearing the batch of petitions relating to the reservation issue. On Tuesday, the bench indicated that they would in all likelihood refer the case to a seven-member constitution bench.
The bench also hinted that it will take the relevant decision on Wednesday. Before giving these indications, members of the bench had a serious discussion on the issue. Earlier, the bench heard the arguments of Mr L. Ravichander, counsel for one of the petitioners, Mr D. Karunakar. He submitted that authorities did not have any criteria or data on the backwardness of the Muslim groups. He told the court that the petitioner had submitted an application on May 22, 2007, seeking the information collected by the backward class commission on Muslim groups. But the commission replied that it did not have any data. The petitioner again submitted an application on June 29 seeking the information and the commission replied once more that it did not have the relevant data. "When the commission does not have any data, then on what basis did it recommend that reservations be given to these groups?" asked the counsel. Mr Ravichander argued that the BC commission had relied heavily on the Krishnan committee’s report and had not independently conducted any study.