Tamil Nadu's 69% reservation
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Tamil Nadu reserves 69% of seats in education and state jobs under a 1993 Act. This is above the 50% ceiling set in Indra Sawhney (1992). To protect it, the 76th Amendment (1994) placed the Act in the Ninth Schedule. The Ninth Schedule is a list of laws that were meant to be shielded from court challenge. But after I.R. Coelho (2007), Ninth Schedule laws can still be reviewed by courts, and the challenge to the 69% quota is still pending.
Example
Tamil Nadu has kept its 69% quota for decades. By contrast, in June 2024 the Patna High Court struck down Bihar's 65% quota, which had no Ninth Schedule cover.
Don't confuse with
- EWS reservation (103rd Amendment, 2019): it also goes above 50%, but Janhit Abhiyan (2022) upheld it, saying the ceiling binds only caste-based quotas.
Related concepts
- M.R. Balaji case
- Carry-forward rule
- 81st Constitutional Amendment Act 2000
- Indra Sawhney case
- Fifty per cent ceiling on reservations
- Maratha reservation case
- 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act 2019
- Economically Weaker Sections reservation
- Janhit Abhiyan case