New Delhi: The Supreme Court today cancelled the 10.5 per cent reservation for the Vanniyar Community in jobs and colleges at Tamilnadu.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai upheld the Madras High Court order which had quashed the reservation.
The bench said, ‘We are of the opinion that there is no substantial basis for classifying Vanniyakula Kshatriyas into one group to be treated differently from the remaining 115 communities within the MBC groups and, therefore, the 2021 Act is in violation of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution. Therefore, we uphold the decision of the High Court.’
The apex court, however, said a State cannot be restricted from implementing internal reservation and caste can be the basis of it.
The Tamilnadu government, PMK and others had challenged the validity of the 1November, 2021 judgement of the Madurai bench of the High Court, which had declared Tamilnadu Special Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in Services under the State within the Reservation for the Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities Act, 2021 as ultra vires the provisions of the Constitution.