‘Why zone-wise quota instead of GCC as a unit’

The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to file a report informing the court about city corporations elsewhere that provide reservations for local body seats based on the zones instead of the corporation as a whole unit.

The first bench of the Madras HC comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu was hearing a petition by advocate R Parthiban, who challenged the State government’s notification on May 24, 2019, reserving more than 50 per cent of seats for women in the Greater Chennai corporation elections.

“As per the 50 per cent reservation, the government should give 84 seats for women in the general section. However, the notification says that 89 seats were reserved for women while 79 seats were reserved for men,” the petitioner submitted.

Tamil Nadu Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram argued that the government had reserved the seats after completing the delimitation of wards. “As per section 243 (D) and subsection 3 of the Constitution, the government is providing 50 per cent seats to women. As the seats for women are reserved on the basis of zones, women got 89 seats,” the AG argued.

Earlier, the corporation had submitted that as wards with odd numbers were earmarked for the women candidates, they are getting more seats than men.

However, the petitioner questioned the decision of the government that how it came to a conclusion to reserve seats for women on the basis of zones.

On recording the submissions, the bench asked the AG why the reservation could not be given considering the corporation as a unit and not by the zones. The judges directed the state government to submit a report on what are the city corporations across the country providing reservations for women on the basis of zone numbers. The matter was posted on December 23.