The government and a prominent Muslim political group today welcomed the Supreme Court's lifting the stay on Andhra Pradesh government's move to provide four per cent quota in jobs and education for backward members of Muslims while BJP said reservation based on religion was "disastrous" for Indian democracy.

"I'm happy that honourable Supreme Court has stayed it. Many of the students were having a problem and many of the appointments made by Andhra Pradesh government were in a big problem. Now, I think that kind of unrest is over", Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said.

Assadduin Owaisi, leader of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of Andhra Pradesh, said the apex court's stay "is a great thing for the Muslim community in Andhra Pradesh"

On the other hand, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said his party "has expressed earlier that reservation based on religion could be disastrous for Indian democracy".

"One needs to take a holistic view on the subject", he said.

Moily said Andhra Pradesh government has not provided reservation to Muslims on the basis of religion but on the basis of backwardness.

Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, upheld the validity of four per cent reservation provided to backward members of Muslim community in the state.

The apex court in its order said that the reservation will be available only to Muslims who fall under the 14 categories mentioned in the schedule of the Reservation in favour of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims Act, 2007.

A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices J M Panchal and B S Chauhan, however, referred the issue to a Constitution bench to examine the validity of the impugned Act since it involved important issues of the Constitution. The bench wiull be hearing the case in August.

The bench passed the direction while dealing with a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the government against an order of Andhra Pradesh High Court which had earlier struck down the provision as being unconstitutional.