AIADMK to be blamed for striking down of Vanniyar law: Tamil Nadu

DMK said it will consult legal luminaries to chart the next course of action on the legislation that has now been struck down

Erstwhile AIADMK government rushing through the Bill providing 10.5 per cent reservation to Vanniyars within the 20 per cent MBC quota without “necessary data” to back is the reason for Supreme Court upholding Madras High Court’s decision to strike down the said law, Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK said on Thursday.

The DMK government, which issued the GO providing 10.5 reservations in jobs and educational institutions in the state after it came to power in May 2021, said it will consult legal luminaries to chart the next course of action on the legislation that has now been struck down.

Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan, also DMK General Secretary, issued a statement hours after the Supreme Court upheld the Madras High Court on Monday order declaring as “ultra vires” of the Constitution the law passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly providing 10.5 per cent reservation to Vanniyars, a dominant community spread across the northern part of the state.

“While agreeing that state governments are empowered to provide internal reservation to any community, the Supreme Court has observed that there was no proper data to back this internal reservation. The courts had in the past accepted internal reservations accorded to Arunthathiyars and Muslims brought by late M Karunanidhi,” Durai Murugan said.

“The reason for the striking down of the law is because the previous AIADMK government rushed through the legislation at the last minute for political reasons on the eve of the 2021 assembly elections,” the minister alleged.

PMK, which draws its majority support from Vanniyars, asked the DMK government to get a recommendation from the Tamil Nadu Backward Class Commission for the internal reservation with “clear statistics” and pass a new bill in the Assembly.

The Vanniyar reservation bill was rushed through on the penultimate day of the last session of the 15th Assembly by the then AIADMK government, hours before the date for assembly elections was announced, eyeing the Vanniyar vote bank.

PMK, which draws majority support from Vanniyars, had made passage of the bill a pre-requisite for an alliance in the assembly elections. However, the DMK, which opposed the manner in which the bill was passed, issued the GO after coming to power keeping in mind its vote bank.

The MHC bench, while striking down the law in November 2021, observed that for considering a 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars under the Most Backward Community reservation, the Government has not considered the caste wise population and there is no data available with the Government to invoke the enabling provision in the Constitution to provide internal reservation.

Though the PMK had always raised the demand for an internal reservation for Vanniyars, it is the DMK that reignited the debate in 2019 during the by-election to Vikravandi eyeing the Vanniyar votes. Chief Minister M K Stalin, the DMK president, had promised legal measures to provide separate reservations out of the MBC quota for the Vanniyar community.

PMK took the cue from here yet again and forced the AIADMK to pass the law without any discussion on the penultimate day of the last session of the 15th assembly. Political analyst Ravindran Duraisamy told DH the Supreme Court verdict will affect neither the DMK nor the AIADMK, while the pressure will be on the PMK to get its long-standing demand fulfilled.

“It will not affect the DMK as the party has now got back the support of Vanniyars. The AIADMK will also be unmoved by the verdict as the law helped it win maximum seats in parts of western and northern districts where Vanniyars are the majority,” Duraisamy said.

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