Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that the DMK government would ensure 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars in the similar manner it had achieved 7.5% reservation for government school students in professional courses.
“The Supreme Court has clearly said that the Assembly and the State government has powers (for enacting law on quota),” he said while responding to a calling attention motion moved by the PMK, Congress, and the Tamizhaga Vazhurimai Katchi founder T. Velimurugan.
The Chief Minister said he was not ready to go into the issue that “the reservation is temporary” since it was an important issue of Tamil Nadu’s social justice and special reservation. “We will hold discussions with legal experts and certainly uphold social justice,” he added.
Rejecting the allegation of former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami that the government lost the case because it had failed to engage good lawyers, Mr. Stalin said senior counsels Rakesh Dwivedi, Abishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi and P. Wilson effectively made the arguments on behalf of the government.
“The court has placed on record its appreciation for the work of the advocates,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said though the AIADMK government introduced the reservation for the Vanniyars, the DMK government argued the case seriously since it was the DMK government that announced 20% reservation for the Most Backward Classes.
Alleging that the reservation for the Vanniyars were introduced in a hurried manner, he said the ordinance was issued in 2021 though the reservation was recommended in 2012 itself.
“It was issued half-an-hour before the code of conduct for the Assembly election came into force. The hurried manner in which it was introduced led to the High Court and the Supreme Court deciding against it,” he explained.
Recalling the Supreme court’s observation that, “we find that the government has committed an error”, he said there was no need to say who headed that government. “I do not like to join issues with anyone by referring to the other shortcomings pointed out by the court,” he said.
