Searching queries by Madras High Court on reservation

Chennai: The Madras High Court pointed out that a poor person is a poor person whether he or she is from the forward community or reserved category and that the helping hand should be extended to the needy poor not only monetarily but also by way of reservation in education and employment. The court went on to ask the state government to answer a query as to whether it is possible to make reservation for the people belonging to the forward community (FC) based on their economic status.

Justice N.Kirubakaran was passing interim orders on a petition from S.Srihari and 13 other students, which sought to declare as illegal the transfer of MBBS seats in government medical colleges meant for OC category to BC and MBC categories. They also sought a direction to conduct counselling again for the seats allotted to OC category as per the reservation policy in the state.

The judge said the poor in the so called forward community have been neglected so far and no one could speak about them fearing protest voices in the name of social justice. Social justice should be extended to every section of the society. The necessity of having reservation for economic and social empowerment of those sections of the society viz., BC, MBC, SC and ST which have so far been neglected and oppressed was a must. At the same time, talking about reservation or extending the help to the deserving poor people in forward communities should not be viewed or considered as an opposition to the reservation enjoyed by other sections of the society. “Further, this court was aware that in all the communities, there were poor people and they should be encouraged to develop educationally, economically and socially”, the judge added.