However, while upholding the Centre’s 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections in November 2022, the Supreme Court opened a window by suggesting that the 50% ceiling was not inflexible.
Some states, such as Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which have tried to raise their quota ceilings have sought that their Bills seeking the same be put under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which would put them in a “safe harbour” when it comes to judicial review. Most of the laws protected under the Schedule concern agriculture / land issues.
In Karnataka itself, the Congress manifesto came days after the Supreme Court stayed the incumbent state BJP government’s pre-poll order of scrapping the 4% reservation for Muslims and distributing it equally among the state’s two dominant communities, Lingayats and Vokkaligas.
Earlier, in 2021, the Supreme Court had struck down the Maharashtra government’s provision of providing a Maratha quota, for exceeding the 50% ceiling limit.
The Tamil Nadu 69% quota came on the back of its long history of social justice. Currently, it comprises 18% for SCs, 1% for STs, 20% for Most Backward Classes (MBCs), and 30% for Backward Classes (BCs), which also include Christians and Muslims.
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In the days after Independence, Tamil Nadu had 16% reservation for SCs and STs, as Constitutionally mandated, apart from 25% for backward classes.
In 1971, the M Karunanidhi-led DMK government increased OBC reservation to 30% and that for SC/STs to 18%, with 1% set aside for STs. In 1989-90, again when Karunanidhi was the CM, the DMK government set aside 20% reservation exclusively for MBCs, taking them out of OBCs, who continued to retain 30% overall now as BCs, for state government educational institutions and jobs.
Karunanidhi decided to split the MBCs and BCs after an agitation by PMK founder S Ramadoss in the late 1980s. Since the 1970s, there had been panels that validated this, including the A N Sattanathan Commission (1971) and J A Ambasankar Commission (1982) under the MGR regime.
When the Tamil Nadu quota ran into legal obstacles after the Supreme Court’s 1992 verdict setting a 50% ceiling, the then CM J Jayalalithaa, along with other leaders of various parties, led a delegation to New Delhi to meet then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. Tamil Nadu’s reservation provision was then included in the Ninth Schedule.
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However, the debate on reservation is far from settled even in Tamil Nadu. Literally minutes before the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu in 2021, the then AIADMK regime had declared an additional 10.5% reservation for OBC Vanniyars.
The announcement, not surprisingly, stirred a hornet’s nest. The Vanniyars are represented by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the AIADMK and NDA, and other OBC castes such as Thevars and Gounders immediately protested against the move to give the Vanniyars the quota privilege.
Then CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, a Gounder, and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam, a Thevar, both faced backlash from their own vote banks. Panneerselvam, who made his displeasure at Palaniswami’s decision known, was compelled to promise voters that the quota to Vanniyars was “temporary” and would last only till a caste-wise census was done and, presumably, settle the questions of backwardness as well as strength of various groups.
Incidentally, in 2021, the AIADMK government had set up a commission to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities, and tribes, and to work out the methodology for conducting a caste survey, appointing retired Madras High Court judge Justice A Kulasekharan, as chairman. The panel is yet to complete its work.
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In any case, the AIADMK lost the 2021 elections and went out of power, while the Vanniyar reservation move didn’t survive the Madras High Court. In November 2021, the court quashed the decision as “ultra vires of the Indian Constitution”.
Cut to 2023, and the approaching Lok Sabha elections. It’s the DMK that is in power now, and Chief Minister M K Stalin is one of the leading Opposition voices seeking that the Modi-led government at the Centre hold a caste census.
In a recent policy note, the DMK government stressed that it was committed to implementing and protecting the 69% quota in educational institutions and appointments in government service.
Political observers say it is not surprising that different governments have found it simpler to kick the can down the road, rather than base their caste arguments on concrete data. Retired HC judge Justice K Chandru says the process is complex and certain to lead to protests, from communities left out as well as those expecting a higher share, making inflated claims of their numbers.
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On the Congress’s 75% quota promise, Justice Chandru says: “75% is not illegal, but to arrive there, you need a caste census, discounting earlier numbers.
Karnataka’s case is further complicated by the presence there of a powerful mutt culture and two dominant castes, Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Tamil Nadu’s political landscape is comparatively less complex.
