THE  MODERN  RATIONALIST

Ours is a land of several religions and thousands of castes. People professing various faiths and born in particular castes constitute, due to historical reasons, clusters of communities or classes at different levels of cultural development, social status, economic sufficiency and educational attainments.

In their attempt to have a legitimate share of the resources of the country, to participate in its administration and to reap the benefits of education at all levels, the weaker or the deprived sections naturally find it impossible to  compete on equal terms with the privileged ones.

They are naturally in need of special provisions on the basis of the principles of Social Justice to enable them to come up in all walks of life, so that they can overcome their disabilities in due course of time and be able to compete with the advanced sections on equal terms. Providing the backward castes or communities the benefit of reservations under a system of assigning specific quotas based on the numerical strength of the different communities has been followed by a few liberal and progressive governments in south India from the early decades of the 20th century.

The actual implementation of the scheme of quotas has revealed, in course of time, its inadequacies and shortfalls. It requires to be made more effective and useful by making it more comprehensive or fully beneficial to the concerned communities.

But the struggle to obtain adequate measures of reservations in education and employment opportunities and to retain them for the benefit of  the disadvantaged sections has been an uphill task. Those who are bent on sabotaging the policy of giving shape to the principle of Social Justice  succeeded in obtaining a verdict from the higher judiciary against giving reservations to the backward classes in 1950. It was due to the determined struggle waged by the Dravidian Movement at the initiation of Periyar E.V.Ramasami, that once again ensured reservations for the weaker sections through the First Constitutional Amendment in 1951.

In Tamil Nadu the Scheduled Castes,  Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes constitute more than 85 per cent of the State’s population. In 1980, the Government of Tamil Nadu under the popular cine actor - political leader M.G.Ramachandran raised the total reservation to 68 per cent, and by adding one per cent separately for Scheduled Tribes, the then Chief Minister, Kalaignar Karunanidhi made it 69 per cent in 1990.

In 1992, the Supreme Court judgement in Mandal Commission (Indra Sawhney) case uphold 27 per cent OBC quota for employment in Centre, but fixed a maximum ceiling of 50 per cent for all reserved categories combined together. Anyhow it allowed exceeding the limit in states where special circumstances warrant the same.

Dravidar Kazhagam immediately took necessary steps to safeguard the quantum of 69 per cent total reservation in Tamil Nadu. Besides mobilising popular support, it requested the then Government of Tamil Nadu led by Ms Jayalalitha to pass a law under  Article 31C of the Constitution, safeguarding it from invalidation  on grounds of Articles 14 and 19. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in Services under the State) Act 1993 was passed. The government also succeeded in placing the same Act in the IX  Schedule of the Constitution, making it beyond the purview of judicial review.

Anyhow the laws of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka providing quotas in excess of 50 per cent cap were challenged before the Supreme Court. Regarding the Tamil Nadu law, the Supreme Court skirted the Constitutional aspect and used to pass year after year a sort of ‘compromise’ order : It allowed the 69 per cent reservation to continue, but, at the same time, asked the State government to create extra seats that would enable the general category candidates to have the same number of seats if 50 percent reservation had been in vogue.

In its 2007 judgment in I.R.Cohello Case, the Supreme Court ruled that judicial scrutiny of a law or an Act placed under the 9th Schedule is possible if it was shown that the legislation was in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution.

This year on 13th July, the Supreme Court allowed Tamil Nadu to continue with the 69 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions in the State for one year. The Bench comprising Chief Justice S.H.Kapadia, Justices K.S.Radhakrishnan and Swatantra Kumar did not express any opinion on the validity of the law. It said the government would have to place all quantifiable data available with it before the State Backward Class Commission, which will revisit the issue of reservation. If the Commission wanted to exceed the 50 per cent ceiling while refixing the quota, it could take into consideration the parameters laid down by the Supreme Court in the Mandal case judgment: Compelling circumstances based on local conditions.

We welcome the order for the continuation of the 69 per cent reservation until a fresh determination of the quota on the basis of quantifiable data, which, we are sure, will be in favour of Tamil Nadu’s stand : As per the 1991 Census, the percentage of the SC/ST and Backward Classes population in the State’s total population was 88, and as against this, only 69 per cent reservation was provided.

We urge two points in this context: First Caste-wise Census should be included in the ongoing Census operations. Second, the States should have constitutional authority to  fix the quotas for concerned categories in their domain. They know better the ground realities and they have to be responsive to he legitimate requirements of the people.