T.N. defends Vanniyar quota law in Supreme Court
The Hindu
It has challenged a Madras HC decision quashing a State law granting internal reservation
The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday defended the Vanniyar quota law in the Supreme Court, saying the State is the front runner in social justice.
Appearing before a Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai, senior advocate P. Wilson said Tamil Nadu has a "history of granting reservation traceable to the year 1854 onwards, including the caste census being taken in 1872".
The State has challenged a Madras High Court decision to quash a State law that granted internal reservation at 10.5% to Vanniyakula Kshatriya and 7% and 2.5% to other communities within Most Backward Classes.
Tamil Nadu, also represented by State counsel D. Kumanan, has argued that the High Court’s decision to quash the law was based on the ground that the State has no legislative competence and the special reservation was provided with caste as basis and without quantifiable data.
"The Most Backward Classes within the Backward Classes were identified in Tamil Nadu as early as in 1957, when they were considered equivalent to Scheduled Castes but without the factor of untouchability," the State's petition explained.
It said some of these communities were impacted by the criminal tribes' laws of the British and enlisted as Most Backward Classes.
The recommendation for 10.5% reservation to the Vanniyakula Kshatriya was made in commensuration with their population as enumerated in a survey held in 1983 by the Tamil Nadu Second Backward Classes Commission.
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