JOIN USSC annulling Maratha quota: Safeguard 69% in Tamil Nadu
Concerned over the Supreme Court striking down quota to Marathas, the opposition AIADMK on Thursday urged the Tamil Nadu government to safeguard the state's 69 per cent reservation in education and employment ensured by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The state government should consult legal experts and make sure the reservation meant to uplift the poor and downtrodden does not get affected in any way, the opposition party said. "The spirit of this reservation brought by late Amma (Jayalalithaa) to uplilft the masses will be affected if the 102nd Constitutional amendment is applied to Tamil Nadu, as done in the case of a Maharashtra law providing reservation to the Maratha community," AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator K Palaniswami said in a statement.
The SC had on Wednesday refused to refer to a larger bench to revisit its 29-year-old Mandal verdict putting cap on quotas at 50 per cent and quashed the Maharashtra law giving reservations to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state, saying it violated the principle of right to equality.
The top court said that no "extraordinary circumstances" were made out in granting separate reservation of Maratha Community by exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling limit of reservation. The top AIADMK leaders further said Attorney General K K Venugopal had argued that the 102nd Amendment will not affect the power of the states in relation to providing quota in institutions under their control. "This Constitutional (102nd) amendment pertains to reservation in education and employment in the institutions under the ambit of the Centre," they maintained and called upon the state government to safeguard the 69 per cent quota, which is the "cradle of social justice."