The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Madras High Court order striking down the law by the Tamil Nadu government, which provided reservation to Vanniyars, a Most Backward Community
The Vanniyar community has been demanding reservation since the mid-1980s, undertaking protests from time to time. Image Courtesy: @obc_forum/Twitter
The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday struck down the 10.5 per cent reservation provided to Vanniyars, a Most Backward Community (MBC) in Tamil Nadu, in government jobs and admission to educational institutions. The apex court said that there was no substantial basis for treating them differently.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai upheld the Madras High Court (HC) order which had quashed the law introduced by the Tamil Nadu government last year. Petitions were filed by the state, Pattali Makkal Katchi, and others challenging the November 1, 2021 HC judgment.
The SC had said that the law did not provide any substantial basis to treat Vanniyar as a separate group compared to others among MBCs. “We are of the opinion that there is no substantial basis for classifying Vanniakula Kshatriyas into one group to be treated differently from the remaining 115 communities within the MBC groups and, therefore, the 2021 Act is in violation of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution. Therefore, we uphold the decision of the high court,” the bench said.
The top court said though caste can be the basis of internal reservation, it cannot be the sole basis.
Who are the Vanniyars and why did the Tamil Nadu government introduce a quota for them?
The community and its clout
The “Vaniyakula Kshatriyas” that the SC refers to in its order comprises seven caste groups including Vanniyars, Gounders, Padayachi, among others. They are categorised as MBC, which was carved out of the Other Backward Classes category and made separate in the 1980s.
The Gounders are seen as politically powerful but even the Vanniyar community holds a strong social and political clout, especially in the northern regions of Tamil Nadu. It have been retaining political representation since the 1950s. The political outfits of Vanniyar leaders such as S S Ramaswami Padayachiyar and MA Manickavelu Naicker had 10 MLAs each in the state Assembly in the 1950s, reports The Indian Express.
The community has been long fighting for reservation. In the mid-1980s, they organised state-wide reservation demanding a 20 per cent reservation in the state. For four decades, they have persisted in their demands which the Tamil Nadu government partially fulfilled in July 2021.
What was the Tamil Nadu government order?
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin had approved the implementation of 10.5 per cent internal reservation for the community. Passed on 26 July 2021, the government order stated that the reservation would be ensured in both public and private education and in appointment to state government jobs.
The order had declared that it would be retrospectively brought into effect from February 26, 2021– the date the Special Reservation Act of 2021 was passed in the legislative Assembly. The bill had been introduced by the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led government, passed in the assembly, and received the Governor’s nod on the same day, reports The News Minute.
Tamil Nadu’s two major parties – the AIADMK and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) – decided to go ahead with the quota with elections in mind. The AIADMK had introduced the bill ahead of the Assembly polls and the DMK had approved implementation with an eye on the local body poll, a report in The Indian Express said.
There is no data or caste census to back the decision to give the Vanniyars quota. And it’s the reason why the bill was opposed.
A senior AIADMK leader had told the newspaper after the Madras HC order that there were legal opinions warning that it will be struck down, but the “more important thing for us was to do something for them”.
A DMK leader had said that the blame would fall on the court and not the two parties.
Why was the order objected to?
A plea that was filed in the Madaras HC argued that the government had set up a commission headed by retired High Court judge A Kulasekaran in December 2020 to collect data on castes, tribes, and denotified communities, but had passed the bill before the data had come in.
The problem with the quota
The quota was introduced for electoral gains.
According to the government bill, 10.5 per cent reservation was given to Vanniyakula Kshatriars. MCBs have a reservation quote of 20 per cent in the state. If the government order was not struck down by the Supreme Court, the remaining 115 communities would be left with 9.5 per of the reservation between all of them.
The reaction to the SC order
The blame game has already begun.
Tamil Nadu minister for water resources Durai Murugan said in a statement that the AIADMK had hurriedly brought the reservation without any basic data to substantiate the same, which led to the Supreme Court’s move to scrap the reservation, The News Minute reports.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.