BC panel submits report to government

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission has submitted its report on castes in the State, as required by the Supreme Court (SC) for increasing reservation beyond 50 per cent.Panel chairman Justice MS Janarthanam and members of the commission handed over the report to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at the Secretariat on Friday.The report contains quantifiable data about castes in the State, details about the percentage of reservation required to be increased in Tamil Nadu and information about the creamy layer, etc.The SC, in its verdict dated November 16, 1992, had held that reservation should not exceed the 50 per cent ceiling, while delivering a verdict in connection with Mandal Commission cases.Following this, the then AIADMK government headed by J Jayalalithaa enacted a legislation in the State Assembly on December 31, 1993 providing for 69 per cent reservation in education and employment for depressed sections of society.On July 13, 2010, the Supreme Court allowed the States to exceed the 50 per cent limit for the reservation it had imposed, provided they had solid scientific data to justify the increase.Through this ruling, the court virtually gave up its 17yearold stance on the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation.It was in the Mandal Commission case judgment of 1993 that the SC fixed 50 per cent as the limit for quota in government jobs and education institutions.On July 13, 2010, the SC revised this view of the reservation policy in two separate orders on laws passed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 1993 and 1994 fixing the quota limit at 69 and 73 per cent respectively.Disposing of the petitions against the laws of the two States, the SC said these states could 'revisit' their enactments to exceed the reservation beyond 50 per cent limit subject to the condition that they had quantified data to support the increase.Last year, the SC gave one year to the governments of the two States to collect data to justify the increase in the reservation limit. Though many parties had then demanded enumeration of castewise census, the DMK regime had declined to do it. Now, the Union Government has commenced castewise census from June 29.