Live
- Pakistan Protests: PTI Supporters March Towards Islamabad, Demanding Imran Khan's Release
- Additional Collector Conducts Surprise Visit to Boys' Hostel in Wanaparthy
- Punjab hikes maximum state-agreed price for sugarcane, highest in country
- Centre okays PAN 2.0 project worth Rs 1,435 crore to transform taxpayer registration
- Punjab minister opens development projects of Rs 120 crore in Ludhiana
- Cabinet approves Atal Innovation Mission 2.0 with Rs 2,750 crore outlay
- Centre okays Rs 3,689cr investment for 2 hydro electric projects in Arunachal
- IPL 2025 Auction: 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi becomes youngest player to be signed in tournament's history
- About 62 lakh foreign tourists arrived in India in 8 months this year: Govt
- IPL 2025 Auction: Gujarat bag Sherfane Rutherford for Rs 2.60 cr; Kolkata grab Manish Pandey for Rs 75 lakh
Madras High Court Has Overturned 10.5 Percent Internal Reservation For Vanniyars
Madras High Court
- The Madras High Court declared the 10.5 percent special internal reservation accorded to Vanniyars
- The state government's decision to offer special reservation to a certain MBC community without the backing of a caste-based census was questioned by a division bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar, who passed the judgement.
On Monday, the Madras High Court declared the 10.5 percent special internal reservation accorded to Vanniyars, a most backward community (MBC), and its sub-castes in government posts and educational institutions to be ultra vires to the Constitution. The state government's decision to offer special reservation to a certain MBC community without the backing of a caste-based census was questioned by a division bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar, who passed the judgement.
There were no fewer than 20 petitions filed with the Madras High Court opposing the Vanniyars' special reservation, the majority of which represented and argued the case of other MBC communities who were not considered for the reserve.
Petitioners argued that a 10% reservation for Vanniyars would have a significant impact on 25 other MBC communities and 65 Denotified Communities (DNC). The petitioners also claimed that it would have an influence on MBC harmony.
However, in February, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led government approved the Vanniyar Reservation Act, just hours before the model code of conduct for the April assembly elections went into effect. It was put in place after the present DMK government took office.
While the court was considering whether or not to overturn the quota, Advocate K Baalu, a prominent lawyer with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a party in the AIADMK-NDA alliance with a significant number of Vanniyar votes, requested that the order be postponed for a week to give them time to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. A quashing order, according to Adv. Baalu, would affect many students and candidates from the Vanniyar community who have been hired or enrolled in educational institutions based on the reservation. The bench, on the other hand, declared unequivocally that special quota admissions and appointments are contingent on the outcome of the writ petitions.
Meanwhile, Vanniyars are one of the state's largest and most consolidated backward communities, second only to Scheduled Castes in terms of size.
