Madras HC refuses to stay law favouring Vanniyars

The Madras High Court on Tuesdaydeclined to stall the implementation of a new legislation ofthe Tamil Nadu government, which provides 10.5 per centinternal reservation for the Vanniyar community within the 20per cent earmarked for the most backward classes (MBCs), inthe state.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee andJustice Senthil Kumar Ramamurthy expressed its disinclinationto interfere with the legislation passed in February thisyear, when a public interest writ petition from Vijayakumar ofDindigul district, a member of the MBC, came up for hearing.

The bench, however, directed the state government to fileits counter in six weeks.

The petitioner submitted that the legislation providingexclusive reservation of 10.5 per cent for Vanniyars was badin law as it was announced just a few minutes before the modelcode of conduct came into force on February 26.

It was politically motivated, he said.

Moreover, it has been enacted even before the Justice KGunasekaran committee, constituted to collect datas on caste-wise census in the state, submitted its report.

It would badly affect the chances of the membersbelonging to other most backward communities, petitionercontended and prayed the court to stay the implementation ofthe legislation, which had obtained the accent of the stateGovernor.

Observing that the petitioners counsel has not producedmaterial evidence to substantiate his claim, the benchrejected the interim plea.

The court also ordered tagging of a similar petitionpending before the Madurai Bench of the High Court with thepresent one and posted them for further hearing after eightweeks.

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