Vanniyar Internal Quota Based On Data That 20% MBC Reservation Hasn't Benefited Them : TN Govt Tells Supreme Court

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court continued hearing submissions in the challenge to the Madras High Court order quashing Tamil Nadu law that provided internal reservation in education and jobs for the Vanniyar community. The identification could have been done only by the procedure in Article 342A and no other…" National Commission for Backward Classes ought to be consulted The 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act introduced a separate National Commission for Backward Classes and made it mandatory by Clause 9 for the States and Union Government to consult the said Commission on all major policy matters affecting the socially and educationally backward classes. Article 342A inserted by the 105th Amendment Act reads as under - " Notwithstanding anything contained in clauses and, every State or Union territory may, by law, prepare and maintain, for its own purposes, a list of socially and educationally backward classes, entries in which may be different from the Central List." Mr. Sankaranarayanan enumerated the consequences of the 102nd Amendment as under - The Tamil Nadu Government had no power to identify SEBCs; The SEBCs are only those who could be identified from the notification under 342A; The State Government was mandated to consult the National Commission for Backward Classes before enacting the impugned legislation. To substantiate his submissions, reliance was placed on the definitions and the schedule in the 2021 Act - " "Most Backward Classes of citizens" means the class or classes of citizens who are socially and educationally backward and notified as Most Backward Classes by the Government under the 1994 Act;" "Part–MBC Communities" means the community or communities mentioned in Part-MBC of the Schedule, which are notified as Most Backward Classes by the Government under the 1994 Act; "Part– MBC and DNC Communities" means the community or communities mentioned in Part- MBC and DNC of the Schedule, which are notified as Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities by the Government under the 1994 Act; "Part–MBC Communities" means the community or communities mentioned in Part-MBC of the Schedule, which are notified as Most Backward Classes by the Government under the 1994 Act;" He highlighted that the impugned Act did not even identify SEBCs, but only specific groups, which the State Governments are not permitted to do even under the 105th Amendment.