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A Madras High Court bench of Justices M. Duraisamy and Muralishankar has held Tamil Nadu government’s law holding 10.5% internal reservation for Vanniyars within 20% quota allocated to Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in government jobs and educational institutions as unconstitutional.

The batch of petitions challenging the law was earlier listed before a bench of Justice MM Sundaresh (prior to his elevation to the Supreme Court) and Justice Kannamal.

On the last occasion, the court while refusing to stay the law had clarified that admissions/appointments under the law will be subject to the final order in the matter. It further clarified that that it will be well open to the court to pass appropriate order on the admissions/appointments made in the interregnum.
When the matter came up for interim orders, Adv. Gen. (AG) R. Shunmugasundaram appearing for the State argued that as the matter is sub-judice in Supreme Court, the High Court should refrain from passing any interim order staying the implementation of the Law.
He urged the court to take up the matter for final hearing after a week. The AG argued that there are three civil writ petitions having the same subject matter are pending before the Apex Court which has refrained itself from passing an interim order for stay.

The counsels for petitioners contended that mere pendency of the writ petitions before the Supreme Court and its withholding the interim order does not take away the right of the writ petitioners to seek interim order before the High Court. The previous State government has already gone all out in support of the law, which was passed by the Legislative Assembly, just hours before the model code of conduct came into force in the State in February this year.

The Government has said that in a democratic polity, an elected government cannot be barred from exercise of its power to make a policy to legislate any law during its tenure/until the last minute it holds power, to meet the public opinion at large.

In 2010, a writ petition was filed by one C.N. Ramamurthy seeking internal reservation. Thereafter, the process of consultation for sub-classification within the 20% earmarked for MBCs began on June 13, 2012 when the then chairman of Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission recommended 10.5% reservation for the Vanniakula Khastriya (including Vanniar, Vanniya, Vannia Gounder, Gounder or Kander, Padayachi, Palli and Agnikula Kshatriya) community. However, the members of the BC Commission in 2013 had dissented with the recommendation.

The State Government, passed the law even before submission of a report by a Commission constituted on December 21, 2020 under the chairmanship of retired High Court judge A. Kulasekaran to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities and tribes in the State within six months. The Government argued that such report was not submitted within due time

(Case Title: A batch of petitions including V. Saminathan v. The Government Of Tamil Nadu And 4 Others.)