The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Lower marks, separate category for Piramalai Kallars challenged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Lower marks, separate category for Piramalai Kallars challenged

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 19. A government move, creating a separate category of reservation for Piramalai Kallars and keeping their qualifying marks below that for other Most Backward Class candidates for teacher training course admissions, has been challenged in the Madras High Court.

According to the petitioner, V. Kaviyarasi of Attur, though the prospectus of the Directorate of Teacher Education had only five categories — Open competition, Backward Class, Most Backward Class, Scheduled Class and Scheduled Tribe — a sixth class was created within the MBC category on August 24.

The petitioner, an MBC candidate, scored 1,075 marks in the Plus-Two examination and applied for a teacher training seat. Out of 8,460 seats, 5,758 were to be filled through the single-window system.

As per an August 7 notification, the cut-off marks for MBC boys and girls were 1,071 and 1,068.

However, on August 24, a day after she attended counselling, the cut-off mark for MBC girls was increased to 1,078.

But for Piramalai Kallar girls, it remained at 1,068. She said, "even though the Piramalai Kallar community comes under MBC, a separate class, complete with separate cut-off marks, has been prescribed for it.

The prescription of a separate class and reduction of the qualifying marks were beyond the purview of the Directorate, and violative of reservation norms and the Constitution."

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