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Time of India
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Quota pie still in making but parties demand their slice
Illustration by Shinod Akkaraparambil CHENNAI: The caste census, seen as crucial to evolve policies, may also crack open a Pandora's box of reservation debates, especially in Tamil Nadu , where quota politics is heating up. Tamil Nadu's quota politics is under scrutiny as Union govt-proposed caste census sparks demand for increased reservation and potential legal and political challenges. The DMK govt has claimed the census is a 'hardearned victory'. Parties such as PMK are pushing for additional data for internal quota, while Thol Thirumavalavan's VCK is demanding 60 notified scheduled caste communities be declared adi dravidars. This has raised concerns about the impact on existing quotas and the need for legal amendments to address proportional representation. The Tamil Nadu govt has given the state's backward classes commission time until July 11 to file its report on internal reservation for most backward classes and denotified communities due to lack of sufficient primary data. This followed Supreme Court striking down in 2022 the 10.5% vanniyar quota, a strategic move by the AIADMK govt, just hours before the 2021 assembly election. The contentious quota followed considerable negotiation between the two parties, with AIADMK's potential ally PMK pushing for a 15% quota before settling for 10.5%. Supreme Court cited the use of antiquated data as reason for its decision to strike it down. DMK ally VCK believes it's time for adjustments in the reservation system. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo 'Increase in SC reservation is long overdue. SCs make up 24% of Tamil Nadu's population. We want a proportional reservation to increase from 18%,' says VCK MP D Ravikumar. 'The ST quota is at 1% but must get an increase of 2%. When the OBC quota is addressed, SC/ST will also have to be taken care of too. Legal challenges have to be faced. Amendments should be made to change the cap of 50% on reservation. ' The Modi govt's 2021 decision to group seven SC communities under the devendra kula vellalar label has fuelled demands. The move, along with the existing 3% internal quota for arunthathiyars has prompted VCK's adi dravidar demand. The SC communities that form arunthathiyars include chakkiliyan, madari, madiga, pagadi, thoti and adi Andhra. VCK's political opponent, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, has publicly offered support to DMK if vanniyars are granted a 15% internal quota. PMK had previously pushed for a caste census at the national level. In 2008, as Union minister, Anbumani presented a petition to Centre, signed by more than 140 OBC MPs, calling for such a census. Now, PMK says the Union govt's planned caste census will be superficial, arguing that additional statistics are needed to provide internal reservation within TN. 'The state govt must conduct its own caste survey under the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, to know details including caste, education, employment and economy,' says PMK spokesman K Balu. 'Without this, internal quotas will not be provided. The state should not wait for census data. ' The caste census is expected to open the floodgates for quota adjustments. There is an under-representation of arunthathiyars in jobs despite the exclusive 3% quota, says writer and Tamil Nadu Sakiya Arunthathiyar Sangam president M Mathivannan. 'Arunthathiyars constitute much of adi dravidars in the state, but they are under-represented in jobs. The caste census will bring out the true status.' He urges the state govt to increase internal reservation based on the caste census. A former AIADMK minister has cautioned that smaller communities benefiting from bigger quotas could lose out if reservation is based on population numbers. 'The 50 lakh strong, 24 manai Telugu chettiar community should be granted MBC status,' says former AIADMK minister Pollachi V Jayaraman. 'The community falls under BC and MBC categories. The census will reveal their backwardness in education and employment. ' If the demand for population-based reserva-tion is conceded, it will result in more than 90% quota. This is higher than the existing 69% quota, which is under judicial review. The Supreme Court ruling in the Indra Sawhney case has set a precedent for reservation policies. The court stated that Article 16 (4) requires 'adequate' rather than 'proportionate'. This judgment has been consistently cited by courts, including in the recent Maratha quota verdict which struck down the law due to the community's 'adequate representation' in public service. As the 50% reservation cap cannot be breached, the introduction of 10% EWS quota has drawn sharp criticism from certain quarters. DMK, in 2021, made a poll promise to push for a caste census to regain OBC support perceived to have been alienated by AIADMK due to internal quota for vanniyars. The DMK govt is believed to have avoided conducting a survey due to potential implications. Following the Union cabinet's decision to hold a caste census, DMK has been actively promoting the leadership's efforts, believing this move could benefit the party in the 2026 assembly election. Former bureaucrat Ashok Vardhan Shetty says a caste census will help address the issue of caste-based disparities. 'Not counting caste will not make it go away any more than not taking a CT scan will make your tumour disappear. A caste census is the statistical equivalent of opening your eyes to confront reality. If marginalised castes don't show up in the Census and survey data, they don't show up in policies. When that happens, they disappear from public imagination. What we're left with is a statistical fog in which dominant castes monopolise income, wealth and opportunity while pretending caste doesn't exist,' he says. Since 1951, the census has enumerated 2,000 castes and tribes under the SC/ST categories, says Shetty. 'Adding the remaining 4,000-plus OBCs and upper castes is a simple extension of the method and legally warranted since OBCs and EWS among the upper castes enjoy reservation.' There is expectation that the caste census will help protect the existing 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu as the constitutional validity of this law has been challenged in the apex court. DMK MP and former additional solicitor general P Wilson says the Union govt should increase reservation for OBC, SC/ST, as the state already has the highest. He believes a caste census will help strengthen the state's 69% reservation and potentially increase the quota. 'If conducted properly, the caste census would provide strong data to strengthen the case before the Supreme Court along with reports the state possesses through various commissions,' he says.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
For credible Uniform Civil Code, Hindu law must first be reformed
Illustration: Shinod Akkaraparambil The renewed push for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), with Uttarakhand becoming the first state to enact one, is being projected as a step toward national unity through secularism. But this framing — where opposition to the current UCC draft is cast as opposition to secularism — masks a more fundamental issue: that a just civil code must be rooted not in uniformity for its own sake, but in the dismantling of inequities embedded within existing personal laws, especially those governing the majority. Reasonable apprehension that the Uttarakhand UCC will serve as a national blueprint arises not only from its substance, but from the absence of reform within the Hindu legal framework, which continues to uphold archaic structures of inheritance, guardianship and divorce. A credible UCC must begin by reforming the majority's personal laws — not to single them out, but because the onus of equality lies most heavily where the law has remained unreformed. While minority communities have borne and embraced legislative transformations, Hindu law has retained several inequitable structures under the guise of tradition. Muslims, for instance, have seen the abolition of triple talaq as a dramatic departure from centuries of practice. The courts have consistently ensured that Muslim women are entitled to maintenance under Section 125 CrPC, as reaffirmed in 'Daniel Latifi vs Union of India' (2001), striking a balance between religious tenets and constitutional morality. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo Similarly, the constitutional invalidation of Section 118 of the Indian Succession Act has removed unjust restrictions on the right of Christians to make charitable bequests. These are not small revisions. They reflect structural shifts, which minority communities have accepted with dignity and maturity. There is reason to believe that future reforms such as outlawing polygamy or ensuring parity in inheritance for Muslim women will also be met with thoughtful engagement, not rejection. Against this backdrop, Hindu personal law must be the first subject of meaningful reform, not the last. The coparcenary (joint heirship) system under the Mitakshara school of Hindu law continues to grant property rights by birth, a feudal holdover incompatible with modern ideas of merit, consent and equity. Kerala abolished the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) system nearly half a century ago, recognising that it entrenches patriarchy and complicates property rights. Yet the HUF persists in the rest of India, largely due to fiscal incentives, not cultural adherence. Income tax law permits them to function as separate entities, encouraging a proliferation of minor and major HUFs — legal fiction used to shield income and wealth under different names within the same family. This subverts the principle of tax equity and entrenches patriarchal property structures under the guise of legal privilege. Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act discriminates against women by prioritising the husband's heirs over her natal family. If a Hindu woman dies intestate, her self-acquired property often bypasses her own parents or siblings. A just UCC must amend this, ensuring equal inheritance lines for men and women, both marital and natal. In fact, Muslim personal law already provides a more egalitarian model in several respects: it recognises parents as heirs, places restrictions on testamentary freedom, and provides clear shares for women, even if not yet fully equal. These features offer a rich legal vocabulary for building a fairer code. Despite the Supreme Court's progressive interpretation in 'Gita Hariharan vs RBI' (1999), the law still assumes paternal primacy in guardianship. Any serious UCC must codify the principle that both parents are equal guardians, and custody decisions must be guided solely by the child's welfare, not the parent's gender. Hindu law still clings to fault-based divorce, turning dissolution into an adversarial process. A reformed code must adopt no-fault divorce, recognising the irretrievable breakdown of marriage and affirming mutual consent as the cornerstone of modern separation. Equally important is the issue of matrimonial property. Today, assets acquired during marriage remain solely in the name of the individual who earned or acquired them — usually the husband — leaving the other partner economically vulnerable. A just civil code must establish the principle of community property, treating all income and assets earned during marriage as joint property. This recognises marriage as a partnership, economic as well as emotional. Maintenance law remains unpredictable and inconsistent. A UCC must codify a clear, reasonable formula: between one-third to onehalf of the earning spouse's income, calibrated to the dependent spouse's own financial capacity. Such clarity would bring stability, predictability and dignity to those navigating separation. The beauty of India's legal diversity is that progressive norms exist across communities, often in unexpected places. The Muslim prohibition on unfettered testamentary freedom, the Goa Civil Code's recognition of legitimacy for children born outside marriage, and the Islamic approach to divorce without blame all offer important models for reform. But this borrowing must be seamless, not spotlighted. The goal is not to parade one community's practices as more enlightened, but to build a cohesive legal architecture rooted in justice, compassion, and constitutional values. The risk of the UCC becoming a majoritarian civil code in secular clothing is real. If the Uttarakhand model is replicated nationally without critical introspection, it may perpetuate the very inequalities it claims to abolish. Uniformity, when built upon unequal foundations, becomes a tool of consolidation, not liberation. The real test of the UCC lies not in whether it is 'secular' in label, but whether it is equitable in effect. That journey must begin with dismantling the injustices internal to Hindu personal law, from HUFs and property by birth, to discriminatory inheritance rules, guardianship norms, and opaque maintenance provisions. If the majority community resists such introspection, then the call for a uniform code risks being seen not as a pursuit of equality, but a mechanism of assimilation. The time has come not just to speak of uniformity, but to start with justice, especially within one's own house. (The writer was formerly a judge of Punjab & Haryana high court)
