The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the principal Opposition party in the Legislative Assembly, on Tuesday moved the Madras High Court seeking to quash the reservation of wards and posts for civic bodies announced by the State, and instead provide adequate reservation for Scheduled Tribes as mandated by the Constitution.
The writ petition filed by the party’s organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi was taken up for urgent hearing after a lunch motion was moved before Justice N. Kirubakaran.
During the hearing, senior counsel for the petitioner submitted that the State government has failed to provide due reservation to the Schedule Tribe (ST) community in the upcoming local body elections.
Highlighting a number of districts where reservation is not provided in proportion to the community’s population, counsel said, “Even in the Chennai Corporation, out of the 200 wards, not even a single seat has been allotted for ST.”
Counsel further said, “The process is not open; secrecy is maintained at all levels. Even the election schedule was announced on Sunday, which was a holiday at about 6.15 pm and from the very next day nominations were being received.”
After perusing the documents produced by the petitioner’s counsel, Justice N. Kirubakaran observed, “The documents show that the government has given more than 50 percent reservation which is against the Apex Court directive.”
Opposing the petition, the Advocate General submitted that the plea is not maintainable primarily on two grounds. “One, there is a bar on entertaining a writ petition on the issue, particularly after notification of the election. Two, since the term of local bodies cannot be extended over five years, it is mandatory to conduct the election before the expiry of the current term.”
He added that he could file a report with the details of the reservations provided in the past elections, including in 2006 (when the DMK was in power) so that it would help the court to decide on the issue.
On the argument made by the Advocate General that the plea is not maintainable, the counsel for the petitioner relied on a Full Bench judgment of the High Court and justified that the petition is maintainable when Constitutional mandates are not adhered to. To this, Justice Kirubakaran pointing out that the Full Bench order was made against the government when the DMK was at the helm, he said, “You are actually using the bomb which was fired against you.”
