10.5% quota to Vanniakula Kshatriya: Madras High Court refuses to stay law

By LE Desk

Chennai, March 10: The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the operation of the recent State legislation providing 10.5 per cent internal reservation to the Vanniakula Kshatriya community within the 20 per cent quota earmarked for the Most Backward Classes (MBCs) and Denotified Communities (DNCs) in education and public employment. The court, however, issued notice to the State government on the main petition to declare the law as unconstitutional and called for a counter-affidavit in six weeks.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said the litigant had not made an overwhelming case for the grant of interim orders, except for claiming that the law had been passed solely with a view of garnering the votes of a particular caste group during the coming Assembly election, The Hindu reported. 

The petitioner said the intention was evident from the fact that the law was passed in the Assembly just minutes before the election date was announced by the Election Commission of India (EC).

P. Vijayakumar, a daily wager from Batlagundu in Dindigul district, also said in his petition that the internal reservation was provided without any quantifiable data on the population of the Vanniakula Kshatriya (including Vanniyar, Vanniya, Vannia Gounder, Gounder or Kander, Padayachi, Palli and Agnikula Kshatriya). The first Division Bench said those issues could be decided only after a counter-affidavit was filed by the government.

When senior counsel V. Karthic contended that the enactment of the Tamil Nadu special reservation of seats in educational institutions, including private educational institutions and of appointments or posts in the services under the State within the reservation for the Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities Act, 2021 was nothing but a political ploy and the court should deprecate such action, the Chief Justice said, “The court should not get involved in politics.”

The judges directed Advocate-General Vijay Narayan to take notice on behalf of the State government and ensure that a counter-affidavit was filed in six weeks. They also granted two more weeks for the petitioner to file a rejoinder, if any, and directed the High Court Registry to list the case for hearing after eight weeks.

The petitioner had pointed out that the State government had in December 2020 appointed a Commission, headed by retired High Court judge A. Kulasekaran, to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities and tribes.

However, even before the Commission could submit its report, the government had, in undue haste, enacted the law to provide 10.5% internal reservation to the Vanniakula Kshatriya communities. The result was that a host of other MBC and DNC caste groups were categorised into two categories, and the first category had been given 7% reservation and the second category the rest of the 2.5% quota in education and public employment, he said.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/105-quota-to-vanniakula-kshatriya-madras-high-court-refuses-to-stay-law/article34031450.ece