The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging Centre's decision to carve out a 4.5 percent sub-quota for minorities from within the existing 27 percent reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in educational institutions.

A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad asked the petitioner to approach the high court against the government's decision to give reservation to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) within the 27 percent OBC quota.

Petitioner Vikrant Yadav sought the apex court's intervention into the matter, pleading that the Centre's decision was arbitrary and illegal and it should be set aside.

"The said creation of a 4.5 percent sub-quota for minorities within the existing 27 percent reservation for OBCs is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory, divisive and not in public interest and is also violative of Fundamental Rights," Yadav said in his petition.

He said the reservation cannot be given on the basis of religion and the socially and educationally backward classes of minority communities are already included in the 27 percent reservation provided to the OBCs.

"The present resolution has been passed without ascertaining whether the religious or linguistic minorities are actually in the need of any such preferential reservation within the OBC quota," the petition said.

The Centre on December 22 last year had decided to carve out the sub-quota for minorities from within the existing reservation for OBCs and had notified Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) as minority communities.

The decision was taken on the basis of recommendation of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities.