Strucking Down Vanniyars Quota

In News

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) struck down 10.5% reservation within MBCs for Vanniyars in Tamil Nadu.

About

• The Supreme Court upheld the Madras High Court judgement which struck down the law brought in Tamil Nadu last year.
• It provided 10.5 per cent reservation to Vanniyars, within the Most Backward Classes (MBC) community, in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions. 
• The recommendations of the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission chairman on the basis of which it made the law were based on the Janarthanam Commission Report.

Apex court’s stand

• Earlier, it was done solely on the basis of numbers without adequate data to show the relative backwardness of the Vanniyar community.
• Upholding the HC judgement, the top court said it is of the opinion that the law did not provide any substantial basis to treat Vanniyar as a separate group compared to others among MBCs. 
  • Thus, the 2021 Act is ultra vires the Constitution.
• Taking cue from Indra Sawhney Case:
  • On the issue of caste based classification, the court in the Indra Sawhney case had stated that caste can be the starting point but not the sole basis. 
  • Similarly, caste can be the starting point for providing internal reservation but it is incumbent on the State Government to justify the reasonableness of the decision and to demonstrate that caste is not the sole basis.

Vanniyyars as a Community

• Even as backward communities such as Thevars and Gounders are largely seen as Tamil Nadu’s socially and politically powerful communities, Vanniyars were one of the largest and most consolidated backward communities that had a consistency in retaining political representation from 1940s and 1950s.
• Politically also more represented: 
  • In the political act of bargaining for community representation too, Vanniyars had been far ahead of other backward and Most Backward Communities (MBC) for decades, which includes their organised state-wide agitations in the mid-1980s demanding an exclusive 20 per cent reservation in the state and 20 per cent in central services.
• Vanniyakula Kshatriyas:
  • SC refers to in its order comprises seven caste groups including Vanniyars, Gounders, Padayachi, among others. 
  • They are categorised as MBC, which was carved out of the Other Backward Classes category and made separate in the 1980s.

Vanniyar Movement

• Massive protests: 
  • Vanniyars are one of the largest and most consolidated backward communities in the state. They had raised massive protests in the mid-1980s demanding 20% reservation in the state, and 2% in central services.
• Political backing: 
  • Their movement was backed by the Justice Party as well as the Self-Respect Movement. 
  • Organised protests began with the formation of Vanniyar Sangam, headed by S Ramadoss, a medical practitioner who later founded the political party PMK.
• On ground protest: 
  • The agitation began in 1986 with activists sending hundreds of letters and telegrams to then Chief Minister M G Ramachandran seeking an audience. As there was no response from MGR and the then Rajiv Gandhi government, agitators started demonstrations in community strongholds, then went on to blockading rail and road traffic.
  • The blockades were effective because community members in each village would block busy highway stretches on their village borders. They would cut revenue trees on either side of the state highway.
  • One blockade in May 1986 brought traffic in the entire state to a halt, and thousands were arrested. A one-day blockade of trains followed in December 1986. The peak was in September 1987, when road traffic in northern Tamil Nadu came to a halt for an entire week.
• Reservation granted:
  • After the DMK government of M Karunanidhi came to power in 1989, the OBC quota was split into two: 
    • Backward Castes and 
    • Most Backward Castes. 
  • Vanniyars were categorised among the MBCs with 107 other communities, with 20% reservation.
  • Three decades later, the then AIADMK government passed a Bill, and the current DMK government has implemented it with a Government Order ensuring 10.5% reservation for Vanniyars within the 20% MBC quota.

Tamil Nadu and Reservation

• The State Government said Tamil Nadu was a pioneer in granting reservation.
• The Most Backward Classes (MBC) within the Backward Classes were identified in Tamil Nadu as early as in 1957, when they were considered equivalent to the Scheduled Castes, but without the factor of untouchability.
• It said some of these communities were impacted by the criminal tribes laws of the British and enlisted as MBCs. 

Way Ahead

• According to the government bill, 10.5 percent reservation was given to Vanniyakula Kshatriars. 
• MCBs have a reservation quota of 20 percent in the state. If the government order was not struck down by the Supreme Court, the remaining 115 communities would be left with 9.5 per of the reservation between all of them.

Source: IE + FP