NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, MAR 9
The Madras High Court on Tuesday declined to stall the implementation of a new legislation of the Tamil Nadu government, which provides 10.5 per cent internal reservation for the Vanniyar community within the 20 per cent earmarked for the most backward classes (MBCs), in the state.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamurthy expressed its disinclination to interfere with the legislation passed in February this year, when a public interest writ petition from Vijayakumar of Dindigul district, a member of the MBC, came up for hearing.
The bench, however, directed the state government to file its counter in six weeks. The petitioner submitted that the legislation providing exclusive reservation of 10.5 per cent for Vanniyars was bad in law as it was announced just a few minutes before the model code of conduct came into force on February 26.
It was ”politically motivated,” he said. Moreover, it has been enacted even before the Justice K Gunasekaran committee, constituted to collect datas on caste- wise census in the state, submitted its report.
It would badly affect the chances of the members belonging to other most backward communities, petitioner contended and prayed the court to stay the implementation of the legislation, which had obtained the accent of the state Governor.
Observing that the petitioner’s counsel has not produced material evidence to substantiate his claim, the bench rejected the interim plea. The court also ordered tagging of a similar petition pending before the Madurai Bench of the High Court with the present one and posted them for further hearing after eight weeks.
