Brahmins’ assn challenges circular on income proof

Chennai

A division bench comprising Justice R Subbiah and Justice R Krishnan Ramasamy posted the hearing to June 30 after directing the State to submit its response by then.

ABBA president TP Kulathumani submitted that based on the economic situation of persons belonging to other castes, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment took a policy decision to provide reservation for the economically weaker sections among the unreserved communities like Brahmins. Following this, a Constitutional amendment was made resulting in several central institutions and Public Sector Undertakings introducing reservation. The Commissioner of Revenue Administration (CRA) through a circular on May 4, 2019, directed District Collectors to instruct tahsildars to provide income and asset certificates for economically and weaker sections adhering to the guidelines.

However, nearly after a year, the CRA issued another letter on June 4 withdrawing the earlier circular and directing all Collectors to instruct tahsildars not to issue these certificates either online or manually.

Claiming that this rendered the community members from even applying for any civil posts, central services and admission in educational institutions, the association sought to declare the impugned order as unconstitutional and quash it.