Plea in HC seeks reclassification of 7.5 per cent govt quota

The plea is set to come up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha soon. The petitioner, V Deepa from Salem, submitted that the impugned Government Order (GO) offering 7.5 per cent reservation only to students, who have studied up to Class 6 in unaided schools under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE) and completed the remaining standards up to Class 12 in government schools, suffers from the vice of discrimination and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

“Students, who have studied in the specified school under the Central Act, have been placed in a higher footing. The government, in its GO, ought to have issued clarification for students who have partly studied in private schools and partly in government schools,” the petitioner submitted.

The plea claimed that while Justice Kalaiyarasan Commission had recommended 10 per cent horizontal reservation on a preferential basis, the government used its discretion and limited the reservation to 7.5%. It also said that, in the same manner, provision should have been made for admitting students, who have partly studied in private schools and partly in government schools, which would have been a reasonable classification.

Claiming that there must be reasonable classification among students in this regard, the plea sought for a direction that is similar to students who had studied under the RTE Act being given a classification, students who had studied from Class 7 to Class 12 in government schools should also be deemed to be government school students.