CHENNAI: A day after the Tamil Nadu government issued a government order for implementation of 10.5% internal reservation to vanniyars, the Madras high court on Wednesday made it clear that it will have to stay the GO if the state tries to implement the quota even before the court hears pleas challenging its validity.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy made the observation when a counsel for one of the petitioners made an urgent mention about the GO.
“We will hear the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the reservation in the course of 10 days or so. But if the government wants to implement the quota before the court decides its validity, then we have to stay any such move,” the bench said.
The court then directed the government counsel to get instructions from the authorities, by 12.30pm, as to the purpose of the GO.
The issue pertains to a legislation passed by the then AIADMK government minutes before the model code of conduct came into force ahead of the assembly election.
Subsequently, a series of PILs were moved in the high court challenging the validity of such exclusive reservation for the vanniyar community.
The petitioners, including associations of various communities falling under the MBC category, contended that if the reservation was allowed to be implemented, vanniyars and other sub-castes that come under vanniyakula kshatriya community would enjoy exclusive 10.5% reservation in admission to higher education and government services while other 25 castes under MBC and 68 castes under DC will have to share 7% of the remaining reservation.
This exclusive reservation would affect the development of the state besides developing enmity among communities falling under MBC category, the petitioners said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/madras-high-court-warns-of-staying-go-for-implementation-of-vanniyar-quota/articleshow/84816104.cms
