Respond to Thirumavalavan plea on quota in local bodies: Madras HC

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to file its counter affidavit within three weeks to a petition by VCK leader Thol.Thirumavalavan and two others, which sought a direction to provide reservation for SCs and STs in the post of Chairman in town panchayats and municipalities proportionate to their population at the block and district level.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan posted for August 3 further hearing of the petition. According to petitioners, instead of providing reservation for the post of chairman of town panchayats by allotting the reserved posts to every block taking into consideration the population of SCs/STs in every such block and instead of providing reservation for the post of Chairman of Municipal Councils by allotting the reserved posts to every district considering the population of SCs/STs in all the municipalities in every district, the authorities were reckoning the proportionate reservation in terms of population of SCs/STs in all town panchayats/municipalities.

This was arbitrary.  They said though Art. 243-T empowers state legislature to determine the manner in which such reservation should be effected, the manner in which the quota was being effected frustrates the object of provision for reservation under the Constitution which was to empower SC/ST, to ensure development at grass-root level and create an atmosphere conducive to fearless discharge of democratic rights by members of SC/ST, the petitioners said.