NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking stay on implementation of the 5% OBC quota for members of Gujjar, Banjara, Gadia Lohar , Raika and Gadaria communities, which was enacted by the Rajasthan government on February 13.

Counsel for petitioners Abhinav Sharma argued that a similar attempt by the Rajasthan government in 2015 was quashed by the high court and the SC had ordered status quo on its implementation. A bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the main petition was pending consideration of the HC. "We will not entertain this petition against the HC's interim order refusing stay," it said and disposed of the plea.

On petitions filed by Arvind Sharma and Badal Sharma challenging the 5% quota on the ground that it breached the 50% ceiling put by a constitution bench of the SC in the Indra Sawhney case in 1992, the HC had sought response from the state but had declined to stay implementation of the 5% quota.

Interestingly, the petitioners pointed out that the Madhya Pradesh HC, on a petition challenging the validity of the Kamal Nath government's ordinance increasing reservation for OBCs from 14% to 27%, which took the quantum of quota to 63%, had ordered the state not to implement increased quota for OBCs and continue providing only 14%.

