Quota law matter of pride; its misuse can't be condoned: Madras HC

CHENNAI: The reservation policy as such is a matter of pride for our diversity and any exploitation or misuse, even if detected late, cannot be justified, the Madras high court has said.
"It is true that there were no scientific methods to determine the caste or community of any citizen of India till a few decades back. But now with a system in place covering all the aspects and facts to go into the genuineness of anyone's claim of belonging to SC/ST," a division bench of Justice V M Velumani and Justice R Hemalatha said on Monday.
Nothing much can be alleged against such committees which are intended only to weed out the unscrupulous elements who misuse the provisions of the Constitution, the court added.
The bench made the observations while dismissing a plea moved by R Balasundaram, a retired employee of the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding.
He moved the plea challenging an order passed by the Tamil Nadu State Level Scrutiny Committee-III, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department dated January 4, 2022 cancelling ST community certificate awarded to him.
As per the certificate, the petitioner belonged to 'Hindu Konda Reddy' a Scheduled Tribe community. On September 30, 2014, the institute referred his certificate for verification to the scrutiny committee.
Based on the report of the vigilance cell that the petitioner does not belong to the ST community, the committee cancelled the original community certificate issued to the petitioner. Challenging the order, the petitioner submitted that cancellation of the certificate issued 40 years ago has caused untold suffering to him while he is in old age.
Refusing to accept the submissions, the court said, "this is one of the many instances of the alleged bogus community certificate based on which employment in the government sector was obtained. This court is flooded with such petitions and counter claims."