69 percent quota: Advantage TN
G Babu Jayakumar
Express News ServiceFirst Published : 14 Jul 2010 03:51:31 AM IST
Last Updated : 14 Jul 2010 10:29:02 AM IST
CHENNAI: The Supreme Court order allowing Tamil Nadu to continue with
the 69 per cent quota in government jobs and educational institutions
for a year is a shot in the arm for the ruling DMK as reservation has
been a key issue in the State's socio-political mobilisation.
To put it otherwise, in the State that pioneered the concept of job
reservation, no political party can ever aspire to reap votes, leave
alone capturing power, by taking an open stand against quota.
For, not only is the idea of reservation ingrained in the collective
psyche of the people, its history in Tamil Nadu dates back to 1854
when the British government issued a standing order (No 128-2) urging
collectors to divide the subordinate appointments in their districts
among the principal castes.
Subsequently, in 1921, the Madras Presidency, during the regime of the
South India Liberal Federation aka Justice Party, which was the
forerunner for the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), passed a government order
(GO) listing out the job quota: 44 per cent for non-Brahmins, 16 per
cent for Brahmins, 16 per cent for Muslims, 16 per cent for
Anglo-Indians and Christians and eight per cent for scheduled castes.
The GO remained on paper till 1927, when Muthiah Mudaliar, a minister
in the next government headed by P Subarayan issued fresh orders,
which came to be known in popular parlance as the 'Communal GO', to
ensure job reservation in the registry department.
The Communal GO subsequently underwent changes — somewhere along the
line the term Backward Hindu was also incorporated — and quotas were
provided for in jobs and admission to colleges till 1950 when the GO
was struck down by a full bench of the Madras High Court on the ground
that it went against Article 29 (2) of the Constitution.
The verdict was given on two cases, one filed by Shanbagam Duraiswamy
and the other by C R Srinivasan. The grievance of Duraiswamy was that
she had applied for medical college admission and could not get a seat
in view of the reservation policy and Srinivasan had contented that he
was denied admission, despite having the qualification, in an
engineering college because he happened to be a Brahmin.
After the SC upheld the HC verdict on April 9, 1951, the State
witnessed widespread agitations with the DK spearheading the movement.
That impelled the Centre to bring in the first Constitutional
amendment, adding a fourth clause to Article 15 (Prohibition of
discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of
birth).
Clause 4 reads as follows: "Nothing in this article or in clause (2)
of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special
provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally
backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes."
Based on that, reservation resumed in Tamil Nadu. In 1957, after the
reorganisation of states, the reservation formula followed in Tamil
Nadu was: SC 16 per cent, BC 25 per cent and OC 59 per cent. Later,
the DMK government raised the quota for BCs to 31 per cent.
When M G Ramachandran was Chief Minister, in 1979 an annual income of
Rs 9,000 was fixed as ceiling to avail of BC quota benefit. But he
withdrew the order after his party was routed in the 1980 Lok Sabha
elections and also raised the quota for BCs to 50 per cent, thus
taking the total percentage of reservation to 68.
In 1988, when the DMK was in power, it was raised it to 69 per cent
with one per cent added for STs. The BC quota of 50 per cent was also
split into two — 30 per cent for BCs and 20 per cent for Denotified
Tribes and Most Backward Classes.
Later, a three per cent sub-quota for the Arunthathiyar community was
carved out of the 18 per cent quota for the SCs.
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