After DMK, DK moves court against 10 pc quota for poor

After the DMK, the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) has challenged the 10 per cent quota for the general category poor in the Madras High Court, which on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government.

A division bench, comprising Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, tagged the PIL petition with that of the DMK and posted it for hearing on February 18.

The bench had on Monday posted to February 18 the DMK’s petition challenging the quota after issuing a notice to the Centre.

Petitioner Kali Poongundran, Vice President of DK, submitted that economic criteria alone cannot be the basis for any amendment to the Constitution under Article 368 as the preamble has declared that justice refers to social justice, economic and political justice.

He contended that the constitutional amendment was made in a hurried manner without any discussion and had political undertones. Referring to exceptions provided in Article 15 of the Constitution, the petitioner said it only referred to socially and educationally backward classes and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

He also said 69 per cent reservation was already in effect in Tamil Nadu and has protection under the ninth schedule of the Constitution. If the amendment was implemented, the quota would go up to 79 per cent, he said, seeking to declare the 10 pc quota as unconstitutional.