Madras High Court Dismisses 50pc Reservation for Women in GCC Elections

Madras High Court Dismisses 50pc Reservation for Women in GCC Elections - Sakshi Post

In the Chennai civic elections, the High Court has overturned a 50% reservation rule for women.

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday overturned an order in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) elections that provided reservations for women above and beyond the 50% quota.

While hearing a plea by Advocate R. Parthiban challenging the legitimacy of the government order, the first bench of the Madras High Court, represented by Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Adikesavalu, knocked down the decree.

The petitioner claimed that women were assigned 105 of the 200 seats in the Chennai Corporation, which he said was illegal and against the law.

For the urban local body elections, the Court has mandated the state election commission to reserve only 50% of the seats for women.

Senior counsel S. Prabhakaran represented the petitioner, arguing that municipal statutes were revised in 2016 to allow a 50% quota for women in local body seats.

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He claimed that 105 seats in the Chennai Corporation, both in the Scheduled Caste and General categories, were designated for women. He said that under the general reservation policy, only 84 seats in the general category would have been granted to women, but that 89 seats were allocated to women in the general category in violation of the rules.

"The phrase not less than 50% should not be construed to mean that women's reservations can be provided beyond 50%," he stated.

The senior counsel stated that a government order published in 2019 designated 16 seats for Scheduled Caste women, 16 seats for Scheduled Tribe women, and 89 seats for general category women, arguing that this was unlawful and a form of discrimination against males.

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