HC dismisses plea seeking additional quota for SCs

The Madras High Court dismissed a petition seeking direction to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission and the Greater Chennai Corporation to allot the additional seats for the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities for the upcoming urban local body polls.

Dismissing the petition moved by B Ambeth Venkatesh, president, Dr Ambedkar Indian Democratic Movement, the first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy ruled that the petitioner has not shown sufficient cause for the delay in filing the writ petition. “Apart from [that], once the process of election has commenced, this court would not cause interference. Even otherwise, the writ petition is not maintainable because the allegation qua delimitation cannot be raised before this court unless violation of Rules has been shown,” the bench held.

The petitioner sought a direction to the TNSEC and GCC to consider his representation to them dated January 31 to allot four more wards for the SC section in the Greater Chennai Corporation. According to him, as per the 18 per cent communal reservation policy for SCs, the GCC should have reserved 18 seats for SC women and 18 wards for SC General. “The Chennai corporation has a total of 200 wards. Of them, 16 wards have been reserved for SC women and 16 for SC general. Reserving merely 32 seats for the SC caste is against the reservation policy,” the petitioner had contended. He had also challenged the delimitation done in 2018 and wanted a direction to the GCC and SEC to allot four additional seats for the SC section.