T.N.’s quota, States’ power to identify BCs under focus after SC verdict

Maratha ruling brings State’s policy under a cloud: Chandru

The Supreme Court striking down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, extending reservation to the Maratha community, may have consequences for the reservation policy in Tamil Nadu. The Constitution Bench held that reservation in excess of the 50% ceiling is unconstitutional. “The reservation policy of Tamil Nadu, both vertical and horizontal, is under a cloud, and there is uncertainty,” said K. Chandru, a retired judge of the Madras High Court. He pointed out that while the State’s Act providing for 69% total reservation had been included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, in I.R. Coelho vs the State of Tamil Nadu, had ruled that even such a law could be subjected to judicial review.