CHENNAI: After warning that it would have to stay the Government Order issued by the TN government implementing the 10.5 per cent internal reservation for the Vanniyar community before deciding on its validity, the Madras High Court on Wednesday said that it will take up a batch of PILs challenging the quota in the second week of August.
The court, however, refrained from staying the G.O. after it was informed by the State that the quota has been implemented since April and that admissions have been already made to law courses, providing the quota. It was also informed that the SC had earlier refused to stay the law providing the quota.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy orally observed, “We will hear the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the reservation in 10 days. But if the government wants to implement the quota even before the court decides its validity, then we will have to stay any such move.” The bench also directed the State to get instructions from the authorities regarding the G.O.
The issue pertains to a batch of pleas challenging the legislation passed by the previous AIADMK government, providing the said reservation, hours before the model code of conduct came into force. One of the petitioners alleged that if the G.O. was to be implemented, all the pleas challenging its validity would turn infructuous.
When the bench commenced its proceedings later, Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram said similar petitions were pending before the SC and were likely to come up for hearing during the first week of next month. He added admissions had already been made to law courses providing the quota, and there was no necessity for passing an interim stay to the order, he stressed.