A day after a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court rejected its petition to vacate the stay on implementation of 27% OBC quota in higher education institutions from this year, the Government got some reprieve when the court advanced hearing on the matter by more than three months.

While declining to vacate the stay yesterday, the bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and L S Panta had said that hearing on the OBC quota would be taken up only in the third week of August.

But making a special mention today before Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Attorney General Milon K Banerji said the issue involved “public interest...and an overwhelming number of students would lose a year if a very early date was not fixed.”

The Attorney General, who was accompanied by Solicitor General G E Vahanvati and Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, said: “This court, in the past, has taken note of public interest where overwhelming public representatives unanimously agreed to the passing of legislation”.

Though the bench, also comprising Justice R V Raveendran, fixed May 8 for hearing, there was no word whether it will be heard by the bench of Justices Pasayat and Panta which had ordered the stay or by another bench.

During the 15-minute hearing in a packed court-room, anti-quota petitioners opposed the Government’s application. Said senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for one of the petitioners: “I leave it to you (bench) to decide. It is a calculated attempt not to go to that bench... As a procedure, this matter should not get special treatment.”

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