DMK challenged in Supreme Court on this basis
New Delhi . Giving reservation to economically weaker ‘upper castes’ is a mockery of the concept of reservation, DMK told the apex court. Challenging the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment granting 10 per cent reservation to the Economically (EWS) category, Tamil Nadu’s ruling party DMK has advised the Supreme Court that the quota is given to reduce social backwardness of persons who are socially disadvantaged. were severely oppressed. Extending its scope to the basis of economic condition can be a joke of reservation.
According to a media report, in a written submission filed by DMK organizing secretary RS Bharti in the apex court, the party said that reservation is constitutionally valid only if done to achieve social equality and if done on economic grounds it is constitutional. will not be legally valid. The plea said that the reservation has been upheld by the Supreme Court only on the ground that it is necessary to remove the centuries of oppression and social boycott. Reservation is an affirmative action to reduce the social gap. Giving reservation to ‘upper castes’, irrespective of their present economic status, is a mockery of the concept of reservation.
DMK said that in the Indira Sawhney case, the apex court had held that reservations for backward classes are for achieving social goals. Such affirmative actions presented a reasonable basis for classification as social and educational differences between the two classes. DMK further told the court that the same cannot be said about the rich and the poor. Poverty cannot be a rational basis for the classification of public employment. Therefore, the present amendments are not in line with Indira Sawhney’s ratio.
Stating that financial backwardness cannot be a destination for giving quota in jobs and educational establishments, the DMK said, reservations are constitutionally valid only when made to achieve social equality. Further DMK told the court that it is well settled that reservation cannot be a poverty alleviation scheme. The object of reservation is to remove the barrier of prior discrimination hindering the access of sections of the people to public administration/education. It is a remedy or cure for the ill-effects of historical discrimination.
Let us tell you that many petitions have been filed in the apex court against the EWS quota and Chief Justice U.K. You. A five-member bench headed by Lalit will start hearing the matter from September 13. Tamil Nadu has been at the fore in the affirmative movement to remove social backwardness and is the first state where the reservation has crossed the upper limit of 50 per cent.
