Madras HC dismisses plea challenging reservation notification

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu dismissed the plea moved by AC Sathiyamoorthy, State secretary, BSP, who had sought directions from the Court to quash the GO dated January 17 indicating the caste-based reservations for councillor seats, Corporation Mayors, municipality and town panchayat chairperson positions. He contended that none or very few seats were allocated for the Schedule Tribes.

The petitioner informed the court that no wards were reserved for STs in the 200 wards of the Greater Chennai Corporation, and none of the 21 Mayor posts was reserved for STs. “The Government Order to reserve seats for the local body elections are against the Constitution,” the petitioner argued.

When the matter was taken up for hearing, Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram submitted that reservation for the local body polls was done on the basis of the State-wide population census as per the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment), 1994.

Recording the submissions, the bench observed that there was no illegality in issuing reservation notifications and dismissed the petition. “As the reservation was made in consonance with the Tamil Nadu Municipal Law (Amendment), 1994, we find there is no illegality,” the bench said while dismissing the petition.