TN should appeal against HC judgment on women reservation: PMK

CHENNAI: PMK Founder S Ramadoss on Thursday urged the State government to appeal against the judgment of the Madras High Court restricting the reservation provided to women in government jobs.

"The High Court in its verdict has stated that there is no need to extend the reservation given to women beyond 30 per cent and women can be given jobs within the 30 per cent reservation provided to them. The judgment is against social justice and the state government should appeal against the judgment," said Ramadoss, in a statement.

He also said that 30 per cent reservation to women was provided in 1989 and it was increased to 40 per cent, recently. However, there were many petitions against the reservation and the Court said that women should need not be given jobs outside the 30 per cent reservation provided for them. The argument put forth by the Court is that reservation cannot be provided based on gender and if women are provided an internal reservation they will occupy more seats.

Ramadoss further said that the intention to provide reservation for women is to increase their representation in jobs, but so far their representation has not reached 30 percentage even after 33 years. "The State government has increased the representation of women in local bodies to 50 per cent and there is a debate to increase their reservation in Parliament to 33 per cent. Under the circumstances it is not right to restrict their employment to mere 30 percent," said Ramadoss.