The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has quashed the Tamil Nadu government Law, enacted in February 2021, when the AIADMK was in power, that provided 10.5 per cent internal reservation in education and employment for the Most Backward Class (MBC) Vanniyakula Kshatriyas within the 20 per cent Quota for the MBCs for want of quantifiable data to justify the special reservation for them. Passing orders on a batch of writ petitions, challenging the 10.5 per cent internal reservation, a division bench comprising Mr Justice M Duraiswamy and Justice K Murali Shankar held that the Act was unconstitutional on the ground that the Tamil Nadu Assembly had no legislative competence to pass the law on the date of the enactment. “The separate reservation for one caste/ community amounted to discrimination against all the other castes in the same MBC category. Further the State had produced no quantifiable data to back its claim that the Vanniyars were far behind the other communities in the list that they deserved exclusive treatment. In the absence of such data, it amounted that the legislation was solely on the ground of caste, and not because members of that caste (Vanniyars) constituted a separate class,” the bench said, once again highlighting the importance of ‘quantifiable data’ required for reservation in education and employment. The AIADMK government had adopted the separate quota law on the last day of the state assembly during its tenure in February, apparently to appease the PMK and with an eye on the 2021 Assembly elections. The law envisaged a 10.5 per cent quota for the Vanniyakula Kshatriyas, among other MBCs and Denotified Communities (DNCs). As it triggered controversy, a batch of writ petitions were filed both in Chennai High Court and its Madurai bench, challenging the law. After a couple of Judges recused themselves from the case (due to its political sensitivity) Chief Justice referred the cases to the bench of Justices Duraisswamy and Murali Shankar. Referring to the fact that students had already been admitted under the quota in the current academic year, the bench clarified that...