Plea sought to declare 10.5% reservation unconstitutional
The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the operation of the recent State legislation providing 10.5% internal reservation to the Vanniakula Kshatriya community within the 20% quota earmarked for the Most Backward Classes (MBCs) and Denotified Communities (DNCs) in education and public employment. The court, however, issued notice to the State government on the main petition to declare the law as unconstitutional and called for a counter-affidavit in six weeks.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said the litigant had not made an overwhelming case for the grant of interim orders, except for claiming that the law had been passed solely with a view of garnering the votes of a particular caste group during the coming Assembly election. The petitioner said the intention was evident from the fact that the law was passed in the Assembly just minutes before the election date was announced by the Election Commission of India (EC).