DMK, other Oppn parties to approach Supreme Court over Puducherry local body polls

The opposition parties would be filing a petition in the apex court where another case for reservation from the territory is already pending.

This is following the Madras High Court dismissing the petitions over the same issue as "withdrawn".

The first bench of the Madras High Court represented by Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Munishwar Nath Bandari and Justice PD Adikesavalu on Wednesday dismissed the petitions after hearing the arguments for two days.

Senior Counsel and former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu Vijay Narayan appearing for the Puducherry government said that the government was planning to set up a commission to study the political backwardness and was fully committed to providing reservation or the Backward Classes. The senior advocate sought two months' time regarding sorting out the backward class reservation issue.

Representing the DMK and other opposition parties, Advocate P. Wilson said that caste-wise data on the BCs and STs was taken during the previous census and that it was available with the Union Ministry of Social Empowerment.

The DMK side also argued that providing reservations to SC's and STs were mandatory according to the constitution.