MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the government to submit a report on the implementation of a GO of providing 18 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and one per cent for Scheduled Tribes in Mathematics, Science and Computer Science streams of classes XI and XII in all schools.
In a Public Interest Litigation, D Arockiam of Madurai said as per a GO dated January 12, 1994, the Director of School Education should ensure that all schools, irrespective of management or administration, should follow the reservation pattern every year, and any lapse would be viewed seriously.
As per RTI data, Madurai Corporation has not followed the reservation in all its 14 higher secondary schools. The situation was similar across the State. As a result, even if SC/ST students secure 60 per cent marks in Class X board exam, they could not join science or maths group, if they wish. This could not be accepted especially when there were vacancies in most of the engineering colleges, the petitioner said.
Hence, the court should direct the government to submit a report on implementation of the GO, he prayed.
A division bench of Justices A Selvam and N Authinathan directed the school education secretary to submit a report on April 24.