Under increasing pressure from allies, most significantly, the DMK, which called a statewide bandh in Tamil Nadu tomorrow and got a unanimous resolution in the Assembly asking the Centre to call for a Parliament session, the UPA government late tonight said it was exploring “all legal options” to get around the Supreme Court’s stay order on OBC quotas.

Underlining that there would be “no compromise with the commitment towards social justice,” the Centre said, after a meeting of the core group of the Congress, that it was committed to making laws in this regard and would “at the earliest” consult its “allies, the Left parties and other political parties” on the issue.

Sources said a UPA coordination committee meeting and an all-party meeting will discuss the issue soon after the SAARC summit.

While the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, too, passed a resolution urging the Centre to take “all necessary measures” to implement the OBC quotas, Cabinet Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti party has also planned a demonstration in Delhi against the order.

Calling it a big setback to movements for “social justice,” Paswan said that as the SC order went against what the Parliament had unanimously decided, it is “against the people as it is Parliament which is the mirror of what the people want.”

There voices in the government sceptical of how effective a counter-strategy will be given that the next academic session is just months away and doubt if the 27% OBC quotas can be introduced this year. Law Minister H R Bhardwaj is reportedly of the opinion that few legal options are available to overcome what is only an interim order — as distinct from a verdict.

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