Tamil Nadu’s 10.5% Vanniyar quota is overturned by the Supreme Court

*Paromita Das

The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Tamil Nadu law that granted reservation to the Vanniyar community, which is considered one of the most backward in the state, stating that caste alone cannot be the sole basis for granting quota within a reserved category.

The Madras high court’s November verdict that the quota was unconstitutional was upheld by a bench of justices led by L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai. The state government, the Vanniyars’ political party, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and a number of individuals filed appeals against the high court order.
According to Justice Rao, who read out the operative part of the judgement, the 2021 state law is unconstitutional because there is no substantial basis to classify the Vanniyar community as a separate category.

The law granting Vanniyars 10.5 percent reservation within the 20 percent quota for Most Backward Classes (MBCs) was passed in February 2021, ahead of assembly elections. It was challenged in both the Supreme Court and the Madras High Court at the same time.
In July 2021, the Supreme Court refused to stay the law while allowing the high court to hear the case. The high court ruled in November that the 10.5 percent quota law passed during the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) rule was illegal due to a lack of quantifiable data to measure the “extreme backwardness” of the Vanniyars.

The state government claimed that MBCs were identified as equivalent to scheduled castes in Tamil Nadu as early as 1957, but without the factor of untouchability.
In 2012, the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission recommended an internal quota of up to 10.5 percent for Vanniyars within the 20 percent quota. It gave the go-ahead for the quota to be implemented within the MBC quota in 2021. MBC representatives and de-notified communities petitioned the Madras High Court against it.

In 2012, the Commission was asked to grant internal reservations within the 20% quota. A law was passed in 1994 that provided for a 20% reservation for MBCs.

The government claimed that the Indira Sawhney decision from 1992 allows states to subdivide castes.
On December 16, the bench ruled that all appointments and admissions made under the law would be protected. The Supreme Court barred the state from making any additional appointments or admissions. This order was necessary because, while the case was pending in the high court, nearly 75,000 students applied for admission and received benefits under this law.