The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government on a petition filed by two aspiring medical students challenging the State’s 69 per cent reservation policy in educational institutions and government jobs, saying it violated their fundamental right to education.
The petition questioned the State legislature’s competence to pass the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of seats in educational institutions and appointments or posts in the service under the state) Act, 1993 (Act 45 of 1994).
The students, Sahitya K and Ganapathinarayanan L, told the Supreme Court that, had it not been for the 69 per cent reservation, they would have secured seats in a medical college in Chennai with their high marks.
“It is a question of the lives and careers of two young students,” G. Sivabalamurugan, their counsel, submitted before a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra.
The Bench listed the case for hearing on November 14.
In their petition, the students questioned the competence of the Tamil Nadu legislature to venture beyond the 50 per cent reservation prescribed by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney majority judgment of 1992.
“The petitioners had secured very high marks. They could have been selected and admitted to the Government Medical College if the State had followed 50 per cent reservation,” the petition said.
It said that the State legislature went on to increase the reservation quota to 69 per cent though there was no preceding constitutional amendment.
The petition said the 1994 statute has been amended twice — in the year 2007 to provide exclusive reservation for backward class Muslims and in 2009 for the Arunthathiyar community.
The petition further contended that the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission’s report dated July 8, 2011 justifying 69 per cent reservation on the basis of data of the year 1985, provided in the report of the previous backward class commission, (Amba Shankar), is “unsustainable and a constitutional fraud.”
“In any event, a meritorious candidate coming within the cut-off mark of 50 per cent reservation cannot be denied her right of admission under Articles 14 and 15,” the petition contended.
