PIL on reservation for Co-op elections rejected

The first bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Pushpa Satyanarayana while dismissing the public interest litigation (PIL) in this regard, said “There are some allegations which are best left unsaid as they seek to cast aspersions on MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats and who have been titled as upper caste high brass officers. 

Great care is certainly required to be taken in pleadings especially when they are vetted by the advocates.” The petitioner S Karuppiah, founder, State Government SC and ST Employees Federation had submitted that since the introduction of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act 1983, no SC person had either become the president or will ever be able to become one unless reservation is provided on a par with general elections. He also blamed the State claiming that “though the state could have done it, it will not do it.”

However, the bench on taking strong exception to the manner in which the pleading transpired held “on the basis of data produced the apprehension of the petitioner are really without any basis as the numbers of elected members from the said communities were 1545 and 1984 respectively.” Based on this, the first bench citing that the very premise that none from this community would ever become president of cooperative is completely belied, dismissed the plea as devoid of any merit.