There is nothing axiomatic or eternal about one’s OBC status: Madras HC

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday said factual assertions regarding lack of objective data, explicit disregard for recommendations of expert commissions, and arbitrary nature of classifications raised serious doubts about the constitutional validity of the impugned entries in Schedule I of Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016.The court said this while hearing a petition filed by G. Kodeeswaran of Melur taluk in Madurai district, seeking a direction to declare Schedule I to the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, (Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 2016), so far as it includes Christian Nadar, Christian Shanar and Christian Gramani communities and to the extent it includes converts to Christianity in Meenavar, Parvatharajakulam, Pattanavar and Sembadavar, and Mukkuvar or Mukayar, was ultra vires the Constitution and direct the authorities to delete these communities from the Schedule and from the list of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities.A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and M.D. Sumathi said there was nothing axiomatic or eternal about one’s OBC status. A clear case had to be made out for inclusion or retention in the OBC list.“Merely because some entities had enjoyed the privilege of reservation for a few decades, would that necessarily mean that the original inclusion was constitutionally justified.? We answer in the negative. As and when a challenge is mounted, the government is obliged to demonstrate to the court’s satisfaction that inclusion or retention of the concerned entity in the OBC list is constitutionally warranted or justified,” the court said.The court said the petition raised profound constitutional questions that struck at the very foundation of the reservations jurisprudence in Tamil Nadu. The petitioner from Kallar community, a notified BC, had applied for the Combined Civil Services Examination IV (Group IV Services) .Competing for the turns reserved for BCs, the petitioner approached the court with a concrete and immediate grievance. He contended that the reservation pool meant for genuinely BCs was being diluted by the inclusion of various Christian denominations and converts, who had never been subjected to any empirical test of social and educational backwardness as mandated by Article 16(4) of the Constitution, the court said.The court said the petitioner highlighted the glaring anomaly found in the differential treatment meted out to different convert categories. A Scheduled Caste person who converted to Christianity was deemed a BC. The 2016 Act itself acknowledged that a person professing Christianity could not be deemed an SC.However, certain MBCs (such as Meenavar, Parvatharajakulam, and Mukkuvar) who converted to Christianity were permitted to retain that status, the court said.The court said it was the petitioner’s case that the fundamental right to equality of opportunity guaranteed under Article 16 (1) of the Constitution to genuine BCs could not be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. “We are satisfied that the petitioner has established a prima facie case that warrants deep constitutional scrutiny”, the court said, and ordered notice to the State. Published - November 12, 2026 11:02 pm IST