89% of Tamil Nadu’s population already eligible for reservation, State govt. tells Madras High Court 

Tamil Nadu government argues against additional 10% EWS reservation, citing existing 69% reservation coverage for population.

The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that 89% of the State’s population is already eligible for the 69% reservation provided in education and public employment, and therefore, the State cannot be compelled to implement the additional 10% reservation for others under the category of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

The submission was made in a counter-affidavit filed by the State to a public interest litigation petition filed in 2020 by Periya Nambi Narasimha Gopalan of Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district. The litigant had sought a direction to the State government to implement the 10% EWS quota for admission to all higher educational institutions in the State.

In its reply, the government said that a 100% door-to-door enumeration of castes and communities in the State was carried out in 1983, following the directions issued by the Supreme Court on October 14, 1982, and that data was being used till now for providing reservation to the backward classes, most backward classes and denotified communities.

The data collected over a period of two years by the second Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission (popularly known as Ambasankar Commission), constituted in 1983, revealed that the proportion of socially and educationally backward classes in the State, including the most backward classes and denotified communities, was 68% of the total populace.

Similarly, the 2011 decennial census found the population of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in Tami Nadu to be 20% and 1.1%, respectively. Therefore, around 89% of the total populace was covered by the existing provisions related to reservation in education and public employment, and only 11% remained uncovered, the government said.

Further, pointing out that Articles 15(6) and 16(6), inserted in the Constitution through the 103rd amendment with effect from January 14, 2019, only empower the Centre and the States to provide 10% EWS reservation, the Tamil Nadu government said: “Mere existence of power does not warrant the State to exercise it even without adequate supporting materials.”

It contended that only a decision, if any, taken by the State by exercising such constitutional power could be a subject matter of litigation and not otherwise. The government also pointed out that the 103rd constitutional amendment had been put to challenge, and it was pending before a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court.