Jaya slams Centre, TN on SC Quota verdict, wants MK to resign

Chennai, Jan 12: Blaming the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government for yesterday's Supreme Court verdict on the IX Schedule of the Constitution, AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today demanded Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's resignation for ''failing to safeguard'' the state's Reservation Act of 1994.

In a statement here, she said it was due to her intense efforts the law, seeking to provide 69 per reservation for the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in education and employment, was enacted in 1994 and included in the IX Schedule.

Now, there was a threat to the legislation as the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court had announced yesterday that all laws included in the IX Schedule after 1973 would be subject to judicial review.

Ms Jayalalithaa said she cautioned two months ago that the Attorney General of India Milan K Baneerjee had abstained from appearing before the court when the Bench was adjudicating a PIL challenging the IX Schedule's immunity from judicial review.

The Karunanidhi Government, which failed to conduct the case effectively, also supported the Centre's double-standard on the reservation issue, she alleged.

''The Reservation Act, for which I strived, is now endangered due to callous and irresponsible attitude of Mr Karunanidhi and the double-standard of the Centre,'' she charged.

Mr Karunanidhi should own moral responsibility and step relinquish office for having ''blatantly betrayed'' the interest of Tamils,'' the AIADMK supremo added.

Ms Jayalalithaa said the Supreme Court, which had already stipulated a ceiling limit of 50 per cent for quota in the Indra Sawhney case in 1992, had held on October 19, 2006 that the ''creamy layer'' should be excluded from Reservation. The apex court had also held that second generation beneficiaries could not enjoy the benefits of quota, she added.

Stating that admissions to educational institutions and employments would be based on these SC guidelines from this academic year, the AIADMK supremo said Reservation based on caste system and 69 per cent quota would hereafter be consigned to history as an ''old tale''.

Accusing the Centre of ''enacting the drama'' as a gift to the people who voted for it, Ms Jayalalithaa said the Chief Minister also did not show any concern on the issue.

''The souls of rational leader Periyar E V Ramasamy and Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai will never forgive Mr Karunanidhi for his betrayal,'' she said.

UNI