Supreme Court reserves judgment on Vanniyar quota law

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment in a batch of petitions challenging a Madras High Court decision declaring ultra vires a State quota law which provided 10.5% special reservation to Vanniyars, a most backward community. A Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai wrapped up the case for a verdict after hearing arguments for several days. The petitioners have argued that the High Court decision was erroneous in law and the State legislature is empowered to provide quota to bring a community into the mainstream Pattali Makkal Katchi party founder S. Ramadoss, represented by senior advocate K. Radhakrishnan and advocate K. Balu, has submitted that a legislation unanimously passed by the State legislature enjoyed the presumption of constitutionality. Mr. Radhakrishnan referred to the court’s past judgments to note that the “presumption is always in favour of the constitutionality of an enactment, and the burden is upon him who attacks it to show that there has been a clear transgression of the constitutional principles”. The senior lawyer argued that the Vanniyar community has not “enjoyed the fruits of reservation as is evident from their abysmal representation in services”. The Tamil Nadu government has argued that the State has been a front runner in social justice. It 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 law granted internal reservation at 10.5% to Vanniyakula Kshatriya and 7% and 2.5% to other communities within the Most Backward Classes. “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 has explained. It said some of these communities were impacted by the criminal tribes’ laws of the British and enlisted as Most Backward Classes.