The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a committee to examine requests from the Ezhuva and Thiyya communities for issuance of Backward Classes (BC) community certificates.
The decision comes 44 years after the entry of ‘Thiyya of Ponnani, Palghat, Walluvanad and Ernad Taluks of Malabar’ was omitted from the State government’s list of BCs in 1976.
The four-member panel, led by Revenue Secretary Atulya Misra, would examine and render necessary recommendations to the government in this regard within 60 days, according to the Terms of Reference issued through a G.O. on April 21.
In 1976, the communities were omitted from Tamil Nadu’s list of BCs after the then government decided that communities which were outside the State need not be on its list of BCs. At the time of the implementation of the States Reorganisation Act in 1956, Kanniyakumari district and Shencottah taluk of the erstwhile Tirunelveli district were added to Tamil Nadu from the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin State. The concessions and benefits enjoyed by the people of various communities identified as BCs in those areas were preserved and continued.
The Ezhuva community, which had been among the BCs in the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin State, remained a BC in Kanniyakumari district and Shencottah taluk of the erstwhile Tirunelveli district even after the merger of these areas with the erstwhile Madras State. However, in the case of the Thiyya community, though ‘Thiyya of Ponnani, Palghat, Walluvanad and Ernad Taluks of Malabar’ it was initially included in the list of BCs through a G.O. in May 1972, the State government subsequently decided that communities which were outside the State need not be on its list of BCs. Accordingly, they were removed it was removed from the list in 1976.
When its opinion was sought by the government, the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission observed that in the light of the Indra Sawhney case, data on the socio-economic and educational status of the entire populace of the State on a caste or community basis, enumerated through an authenticated agency disclosed by the Union government, was needed. The Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission said it had ‘deferred’ any recommendation based on the request of any community seeking inclusion in the list of BCs “for disclosure of adequate quantifiable data on socio-economic and educational status” of the entire populace of the State, as observed by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case.
The President of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam of Nilagiri Union moved a writ in the High Court, seeking inclusion of the Ezhuva and Thiyya communities in the Nilgiris in the BC list and issuance of community certificate to that effect. The State government filed its counter-affidavit, and While the case is still pending in court, Against this backdrop, the State government has constituted decided to constitute the committee.
Meanwhile, on May 20, the Directorate of Information and Public Relations issued a press release inviting suggestions in this regard, which could be sent to the Director of Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities in the Ezhilagam complex at Chepauk in Chennai by May 26 at the latest, either by post or by email - dir-combc@tn.gov.in .
