The Hindu : Front Page : Implead us in quota case: Tamil Nadu

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Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Implead us in quota case: Tamil Nadu

Legal Correspondent

Reservation in education just extension of quota already implemented in appointments

State pioneer in reservation 1931 census only source of details

New Delhi: Contending that it is a pioneer in providing reservation for over 85 years and is vitally interested in the outcome of the OBC case, the Tamil Nadu Government has filed an application in the Supreme Court supporting the Centre's law to provide 27 per cent quota for the Other Backward Classes in elite educational institutions.

The State on Wednesday filed the application seeking to implead itself in the writ petition filed by Ashok Kumar Thakur so that it could be heard on May 8 along with others challenging the OBC quota law.

The former Attorney-General K. Parasaran is expected to appear for Tamil Nadu.

The application, filed through counsel V.G. Pragasam, said: "The scheme of 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in the educational institutions under the control of the Government of India is nothing but an extension of the 27 per cent reservation already implemented in appointments to Central services, which has been approved by the Supreme court and therefore there is no reason to deny the same."

Justifying the 1931 census as the basis for arriving at the 27 per cent quota, the State said, "Collection of caste-wise details was dispensed with after the 1931 census. The only source in which the details are available is the 1931 census and therefore there is no harm in adopting the population and other details available in the above census."

Estimation

It said, "the Mandal Commission estimated the population of the OBCs in the country as 52 per cent of the total population in the report submitted in 1980. There is no chance to get reduction in the above percentage and in any case not below 27 per cent.

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