In fact, neither the colleges nor the students even approached the high court, said Rao.

'How can the high court pass such an order?' asked the bench, as it suspended the order and issued notices to V.K. Singh Parmar, the petitioner on whose lawsuit the high court had suspended the state's July 22 order providing for 50 percent reservation to backward and Dalit students in state's engineering colleges.

Rao told the apex court that the state government's policy was backed by an agreement with the state's private engineering colleges.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the petitioner, sought to argue that the state government had reached the agreement with the colleges by stipulating that it would provide affiliation only to those colleges that reserved seats.

The court, however, said it would listen to the petitioner later.