The Madras High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on cases filed by a host of political parties, individual politicians and the State government, seeking 50% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in medical and dental seats surrendered to the All India Quota (AIQ) every year, as per a judgment passed by the Supreme court in 1986.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy decided to deliver their verdict on July 27 after hearing arguments advanced by Advocate General Vijay Narayan for the State government, senior counsel P. Wilson for the DMK and AR.L. Sundaresan for the AIADMK.
Senior counsel A. Thiyagarajan and advocates K. Balu and Kabilan Manoharan also made their submissions on behalf of the Dravidar Kazhagam, PMK and the Naam Tamilar Katchi respectively. CPI(M), CPI and MDMK too had filed cases.
Mr. Wilson told the court that it was one of the rare occasions “when the entire Tamil Nadu had come together against the Centre”. He said almost all political parties in were voicing their concerns together because the cause involved the issue of rightful reservations to OBCs.
The A-G told the court the AIQ was basically a creation of the Supreme Court judgment passed in September 1986. Till then, all seats in State government medical and dental colleges were filled up only with local residents of the respective States. Disagreeing with such practice, the Supreme Court had ordered creation of AIQ
Accordingly, State governments began surrendering 15% of medical and dental seats in undergraduate studies and 25% of postgraduate seats to the AIQ, every year, so that candidates across the country could compete for them. The number of postgraduate seats to be surrendered was increased from 25% to 50% in 2005.
In 2007, the Supreme Court also ordered the reserving of 15% of seats in the AIQ for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes. However, OBCs were not given any reservations.
A case seeking reservations for OBCs is still pending in the apex court, though the State government is providing as high 50% reservation to OBCs in State quota seats.
Pointing out that the State government determined quota depending on population, the A-G said that the population of Scheduled Castes in the State was 18% as per the last census and hence they were given 18% reservations. Similarly, the 1.25% of Scheduled Tribe population was given 1% reservation, thereby reserving a total of 69% of seats for various caste groups.
A similar pattern should be followed by the Centre too for the seats surrendered by the State government to the AIQ, without imposing a rider that the total reservation should not exceed 50% of seats available under the quota, he said. The A-G claimed that Only then would OBC students from the State be able to get seats under AIQ, the A-G said.
However, Additional Solicitor General R. Shankaranarayanan and advocate V.P. Raman representing the Medical Council of India said that reservations in AIQ should not be allowed to exceed 50%. Meritorious candidates would otherwise suffer, they said.
“What will happen if reservations in Tamil Nadu is increased from 69% to 90% in Tamil Nadu depending on the population? The meritorious candidates will be at a loss and that was never the intention of the Supreme Court, ever since it created the AIQ,” the ASG said. The ASG also said that OBCs from different States could compete for the seats under AIQ. In such circumstances, the petitioners might question the genuineness of their community status and claim that they are not OBCs at all, he added.
