The law was introduced during the rule of the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in 2021. It was passed in the legislative assembly in February last year.
After the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party was elected to form the next government following the Assembly elections last April, a Government Order (GO) was also passed in July by the DMK regime to implement the Vanniyar reservation retrospectively from February 26, 2021.
At least 35 writ petitions were filed before the Madras High Court by persons belonging to other MBCs, challenging the Act and the decision of the State government to give preference Vanniyar community by sub-classifying them.
The petitioners contended that after the insertion of the 102nd amendment to the Constitution of India, the State government has no power to identify/classify any community as backward and it is the sole domain of Parliament. Hence, the Act was argued to be in violation of Articles 338-B and 342-A of the Constitution of India.
Further, the appropriate authority to notify a caste will be the National Commission for Backward Classes, which is a Constitutional body under Article 333-B. Article 340 of the Constitution of India specifically provided that the President may, by order, appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes and the difficulties under which they work and make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties.
However, the State government, without waiting for the recommendations of the Commission, passed the Act without consultation with all the stakeholders, especially, those communities who would be affected by the Act, the petitioners argued.
Besides, it was contended that the State of Tamil Nadu granted internal reservation of 10.5 percent out of 20 percent for the Vanniyar community alone. This is over 50 percent earmarked for MBC. In addition, the classification made on a particular premise of offering a larger slot to Vanniyars in MBC, is bad. There cannot be a preferential treatment from among the same class, it was submitted.
Further, the petitions argued that without there being any census, the Government of Tamil passed a Bill granting 10.5 per cent reservation to the Vanniyar community under MBC without considering caste-wise population and there is no data available with the State government to invoke the enabling provisions in the Constitution to provide internal reservation.
Source: Barandbench
