Vanniyar Reservation: Supreme Court notice in Tamil Nadu challenge to Madras High Court judgment

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to individual respondents in the plea filed by the State of Tamil Nadu challenging a Madras High Court judgment which struck down the law enacted by Tamil Nadu government providing 10.5 percent reservation in educational institutions and government jobs to Vanniyar caste [Pattali Makkal Katchi v. A Mayilerumperumal And Ors]..A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna while issuing notice also passed an interim order, stating that while no appointments shall be made as per the quota, appointments already made shall not be disturbed."No appointment or admission shall be made as per the quota and existing appointments shall not be disturbed," the Court said..The law under challenge, the "Tamil Nadu Special Reservation of seats in educational Institutions including Private Educational Institutions and appointments or posts in the services under the State within the Reservation for the Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities Act, 2021” provided an internal reservation of 10.5 percent for Vanniyar community within the 20 percent quota for all Most Backward Classes (MBCs) and Denotified Communities (DNCs).The special law stated that it was brought to meet the demand of Vanniyars, a caste of MBC and based on claims that they are numerically predominant community but is unable to compete with the other communities in the MBC/DNC category.A Division Bench of the Madras High Court had, however, ruled on November 1 that the law was passed without any quantifiable data on the socio-educational status of the Vanniyars in the services and there was no objective criteria for sub-classifying Vanniyars."The enactment has been passed by the State without any quantifiable data on population, socio-educational status and representation of the backward classes in the services and the sub-classification done by virtue of the impugned Act solely based on population data, in the absence of any objective criteria, is illegal in the eye of law and in violation of the Constitution of India,” the High Court had said.It had also noted that if Vanniyar caste is given 10.5 percent reservation out of the 20 percent earmarked in total for MBCs, the remaining 115 MBCs will get only 9.5 percent share.The law was introduced during the rule of the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) earlier this year. It was passed in the legislative assembly in February this year.After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party was elected to form the next government following the Assembly elections last April, a Government Order (GO) was also passed in July by the Chief Minister MK Stalin-led DMK regime to implement the Vanniyar reservation retrospectively from February 26. 2021.At least 35 writ petitions were filed before the Madras High Court by persons belonging to other MBCs, challenging the Act and the decision of the State government to give preference Vanniyar community by sub-classifying them.The petitioners contended that after the insertion of the 102nd amendment to the Constitution of India, the State Government has no power to identify/classify any community as Backward and it is the sole domain of the Parliament and hence, the Act is in violation of the Articles 338-B and 342-A of the Constitution of India.Further, the appropriate authority to notify a caste will be the National Commission for Backward Classes which is a Constitutional Body under Article 333-B of the Constitution of India, under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Article 340 of the Constitution of India specifically provided that the President may, by order, appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally Backward Classes and the difficulties under which they work and make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties.However, the State Government without waiting for the recommendations of the Commission has passed the Act without consultations or deliberations with all the stakeholders, especially, those communities who would be affected by the Act.Besides, it was contended that the State of Tamil Nadu has granted internal reservation of 10.5 percent out of 20 percent for Vanniyar community alone. This is over 50 percent earmarked for MBC. In addition, the classification made on a particular premise of offering a larger slot to Vanniyars in MBC, is bad. There cannot be a preferential treatment from among the same class, it was submitted.Further, the petitions argued that without there being any census, the Government of Tamil passed a Bill for reservation for Vanniyar community 10.5 percent under MBC without considering caste wise population and there is no data available with the State government to invoke the enabling provisions in the Constitution to provide internal reservation..Read more about Madras High Court judgment here.