NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, AUG 24
Wondering as to why a stay should be granted on the admission/appointments, said to be made under the 10.5 percent reservation exclusively for Vanniyars, the Madras High Court on Tuesday posted to Wednesday the PILs challenging the quota.
By tomorrow, the State government should submit its reply on this question, the bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S Kannammal said.
The adjournment followed a plea from government counsel P Muthukumar to grant more time to enable Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram to appear and oppose the plea for interim relief.
Earlier, one of the petitioners’ senior counsel requested the judges to restrain the government from implementing the internal reservation in education and public employment. The petitions would become infructuous if the cases were kept pending without any interim relief, he added.
In its counter, the government had submitted that the internal reservation of 10.5 per cent to Vanniyars would not affect the prospects of other communities falling under the most backward class communities. The Tamil Nadu Act 8 of 2021 was enacted in compliance with the Constitution and other applicable laws and on the basis of adequate data disclosed by the reports of the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission. As such, implementation of the impugned Act was not barred in any manner, the counter-affidavit filed by the State Chief Secretary, Law Secretary and the secretary of the BC, MBC Welfare department said.
batch of PIL petitions from individuals and some caste-based outfits challenged the legislation passed by the then AIADMK government, headed by K Palaniswami, just before the model code of conduct came into force in February this year, ahead of the April 6 assembly polls.
The petitioners alleged that if the reservation was allowed to be implemented, Vanniyars and other sub-castes coming under the ‘Vanniyakula Kshatriya’ community would enjoy exclusive 10.5 percent reservation in admission to higher education and government services while other 25 castes under MBC and 68 ones under DC will have to share a meagre seven percent of the remaining reservation. It would create enmity among the communities falling under MBC category, the petitioners further contended.
