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Tamil Nadu panel has sought six months to submit report on Vanniyar quota: CM Stalin
“The DMK government went up to the Supreme Court to fight this case. Now, based on the commission’s request, the time to submit a report has been extended,” chief minister Stalin said. The demand for grants for the department of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare was taken up for discussion on Thursday in the on-going assembly.
The state’s backward classes commission has sought six months to submit a report regarding the contentious 10.5% reservation for the Vanniyar community within the quota for most backward classes, Chief minister M K Stalin said on Thursday in the assembly.
“The DMK government went up to the Supreme Court to fight this case. Now, based on the commission’s request, the time to submit a report has been extended,” the chief minister said. The demand for grants for the department of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare was taken up for discussion on Thursday in the on-going assembly.
The chief minister was responding to the contention of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the AIADMK, who blamed the ruling DMK for giving the commission more time.
PMK floor leader G K Mani said that the delay would put the Vanniyar community at a disadvantage ahead of the next academic year. PMK’s founder S Ramadoss, in a statement demanded that the chief minister enact a new legislation of providing a 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars by May 31 ahead of admission for the next academic year.
The law carving out 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars within the 20% reservation for the Most Backward Classes (MBCs) in Tamil Nadu was introduced by the AIADMK on 26 February 2021 just hours before the model code of conduct came into effect for the 2021 assembly elections. The 10.5% internal quota was applicable in public education and employment. After the DMK formed the government in May 2021,it issued a government order in June to fully implement the reservation following which 35 petitioners (who belong to various castes in MBCs) challenged it in the Madras High Court, arguing that the 10.5% internal reservation would leave little for the 115 other castes under the MBCs.
In addition to the 20% MBC reservation, Tamil Nadu has a 30% reservation for other backward classes (OBC), 18% for Scheduled Castes, and 1% to Scheduled Tribes. The 1993 law, which allowed Tamil Nadu to continue with 69% reservation ( first instituted in 1990; it was 68% since 1980; and 49% before that) , exceeding the 50% cap on reservation fixed by the Supreme Court in 1992, is also under challenge before the top court. The law was brought under the Ninth Schedule of Constitution, giving it protection from “any judgement, decree, or order of court...”. To be sure, the Supreme Court said last November that the 50% ceiling is not “inflexible”; earlier, in September, the Union government said in a submission to the court that it was not “sacrosanct”. Both were in the context of the 103rd amendment to the Constitution instituting a 10% reservation for economically weaker sections.
In November 2021, the Madras HC held the quota for Vanniyars as unconstitutional. The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government, PMK and a host of individuals filed appeals against the high court order in the Supreme Court.
In March last year, the Supreme Court upheld the Madras HC verdict and said caste alone cannot be the exclusive basis to grant quota within a reserved category.
“Everyone is aware about how the previous AIADMK government hastily brought this law only for political reasons without appropriate data so it was quashed,” Stalin said in the assembly. Since it was rejected by the top court and the high court, PMK has been demanding that the DMK enact a new law after conducting a caste-based census.
On Wednesday, PMK legislators had walked out of the assembly in protest.
