‘Why exclude govt-aided students from 7.5% quota?’

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the State government to file a detailed report on a petition seeking to extend the 7.5 per cent reservation for students from government schools in admission to medical and dental courses, to students from government-aided schools.

A two-member bench comprising Justices R Subbiah and C Saravanan directed the State to respond by January 5 on the petition moved by the Tamil Nadu Catholic Educational Association. The petitioner said the State government introduced 7.5 per cent reservation in medical admission for students from government schools through a new legislation, and asserted that this was discriminatory towards students from Tamil-medium schools. 

“Aided- school students stand on a par with government school students, socially and educationally,” the petitioner stated. As per the new legislation, students of State government schools, under various departments and local bodies, are provided with horizontal reservation within the stipulated quota of vertical reservation followed in the State within 69 per cent of the total reservation from the 2020-2021 academic year.

The petitioner told the court that except for 531 schools under the association, which manages 3,000 schools, all are Tamil-medium schools that date back to the pre-Independence era. Except for the difference in administration, wherein government schools are directly administered by the authorities while government-aided schools are indirectly administered by the authorities, there is no substantial difference among the student community who share their socio-educational barriers, the petitioner added.