SC refuses to stay HC order quashing sub-class quota within caste quota

The Supreme Court has refused to stay a Madras high court ruling that invalidated a 10.5 percent quota for vanniyars in education and jobs. The order also prevented the state government from making any more appointments or admissions under the quota. The court stated on Thursday that any appointments or admissions that have already been made will be subject to the outcome of the lawsuit. On a batch of appeals filed by the government of Tamil Nadu, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and a few others, a three-judge bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice B V Nagarathna gave the directives. The case was rescheduled for February 15 and the bench stated that it will hear it without delay.

It was on November 4, 2021, Madras High Court set aside a Tamil Nadu legislation granting 10.5% reservation to the Vanniyar community within an existing 20% quota for the most backward classes (MBC) in the state, holding the law to be unconstitutional. The high court also noted a lack of quantitative data on the community's backwardness as a reason for the 10.5 per cent quota and said that any quota-based only on caste was illegal..

A bench of justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar held that the 2021 law, passed by the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government the day state elections were announced, was illegal because of a lack of quantifiable data to measure the “extreme backwardness” of the Vanniyars.

On August 11, 2018, the 102nd amendment of the Constitution denuding the states of their power to include castes in the list of other backward communities for jobs and education, came into existence. After its constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court, triggering political and social uproar, the Union government restored the power of the states by the 105th amendment on August 19, 2021.

Read: Madras HC quashes job quota based on caste sub-classification