Vanniyar quota Issue: Former Tamil Nadu Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam hits out at DMK

AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu’s former Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam on Friday hit out at the DMK government after the Vanniyar community quota was struck down, accusing it of not presenting a strong legal case before the Madras High Court and Supreme Court.

In a statement, he said that the Madras High Court had said that there was no quantifiable data available from the government, and the Supreme Court upheld the judgment as the advocates representing the Tamil Nadu government failed to put up a strong argument before it.

Shanmugam called out the government on the lapse in providing the report of the Backward Class Commission about internal reservation which was headed by J.A. Ambasankar.

He said that the previous AIADMK government had constituted the Kulasekharan Commission to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities, and tribes, and when its term was ending, the DMK government did not extend it.

He called upon the DMK government to extend its term immediately to protect the 69 per cent reservation in the state.

The Vanniyar community was provided with 10.5 per cent internal reservation within the Most Backward Classes category and this was challenged in the Madras High Court, which ruled against it.

The PMK, the political arm of the Vanniyar community, has been spearheading a campaign for internal reservation of the community and the previous AIADMK government had passed legislation allocating 10.5 per cent internal reservation to the community.