CHENNAI: The Madras High Court will deliver on August 25 its verdict on the contempt petition moved by the DMK demanding 50 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the All India Quota (AIQ) medical seats.
The issue pertains to a plea moved by the DMK against the Centre for failing to implement a High Court order (July 27, 2020) to provide OBC reservations in admissions to medical seats from current academic year.
DMK counsel P Wilson argued that backward classes for the Central government are different from backward classes for the state governments and that a recent constitutional amendment protected the rights of states to identify the backward classes. Though the backward classes mentioned in the Central Educational Institution Act, 2006, are referable to fill up seats in the central educational institutions, the same cannot be applied for seats to be filled up in state medical colleges, he added.
Appearing for the Central government, senior advocate KM Natraj, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in the Supreme Court, contended that the ten per cent EWS reservations are constitutional reservations and that the High Court has no say in it. He stressed that if the Central government’s recent order granting 27 per cent reservations to OBCs and ten per cent to EWS are not acceptable to the DMK, it can challenge them before the court; it can’t, however, claim that the Central government has committed contempt of order of the High Court and seek to punish the authorities concerned.