Notwithstanding the union cabinet deciding Thursday night to grant 4.5 reservation to the Muslims within the 27 per cent quota of the other backward classes (OBCs) from January 1, no gazette notification is still issued by the ministry of social justice and empowerment to implement it.

The government sources had claimed that the notification will be issued Thursday night itself to escape the bar in the event of the Election Commission announcing five Assembly elections on Friday bringing the code of conduct into operation.

The Election Commission, however, had to defer the decision to either Saturday or next week as it could not get confirmation of the availability of the central security forces for election duties. It called union home secretary Raj Kumar Singh to the Nirvachan Bhawan Friday afternoon to firm up availability of the forces before finalising the election schedule.

Officials claim the government has already taken a decision on the Muslim quota before the code of conduct for elections coming into force and hence the notification is only a formality, though there have been instances when the Election Commission has stopped such notifications until completion of elections.

The last notification on inclusion of castes and communities in the central OBC list was issued on December 8, though it too includes certain Muslim communities as OBC in certain states like Muslim Bhangis, Mehtar, Halalkhor, Khakrob, Lalbeg in Maharashtra who are actually in the Safai Karamchari profession, Faqir and Hajjam, Muslim Kayastha, Momin, Ansari and Julaha in Uttarakhand and Julaha and Ansari in Delhi who are traditional weavers.

In case of Maharashtra, the list has been expanded to cover 50 more communities as OBCs, some who were left out in earlier lists because of nomenclature while others of their communities were included as also some new communities like Hindu Manyaar, Dhawad, Audhiya, Jastgaar, Lazad, Panchama and Vedu (Waaghari).

Meanwhile, the government sources said the 4.5 per cent sub-quota of Muslims in the OBC's 27 per cent quota does not mean it would be 4.5 per cent out of 27 per cent but it would be 4.5 per cent of the total population in the country.