In Brief
Tamil Nadu enacted the 2021 Act providing 10.5% internal reservation for the Vanniakula Kshatriya community within the 20% reservation for Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities. The High Court struck down the Act as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court held that while the State had legislative competence to make such sub-classifications under the 102nd Amendment Act, the specific 10.5% reservation violated Articles 14, 15, and 16 because it lacked reasonable classification criteria. The Court found the State relied solely on outdated 1985 population data without assessing relative backwardness or competitive ability of the Vanniakula Kshatriyas vis-à-vis other 115 communities, making the differentiation arbitrary and discriminatory.
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