HC notice to Centre, TN govt over SC/ST post-matric scholarship scheme

The Madras High Court Thursday issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a PIL challenging a Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry communication rejecting post-matric scholarship to SC/ST students joining courses under the management quota.

A bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice M Nirmal Kumar ordered the notice returnable by two weeks and posted the public interest litigation petition to July 19 for further hearing.

Petitioner S Subbiah, a retired IAS officer, submitted that the June 11 letter was issued on the basis of a note in Para VI (iii) (a) of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme April, 2018 which disentitled scholarship for SC/ST students who joined higher education courses under management quota.

Contending that the original scheme did not define "management quota" anywhere, he said the rejection of scholarship would cause "grave prejudice and hardship" to the students belonging to Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribes communities.

Since the counselling for engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu has started on July 3, if the scholarship was not paid to the downtrodden students, they cannot pursue further education and their future would be affected, the petitioner said.

Moreover, around 7,000 students had already been admitted under management quota for 2018-19 academic year and they had completed one year of studies.

The letter of the ministry to the state government rejecting scholarship for management quota at this point of time by a non-speaking order will affect the life and destiny of multitude of downtrodden students as they would be forced to discontinue their education, he claimed.

The benefit of scholarship was granted to SC/ST students but the authorities were discriminating against those admitted under the management quota from 2018-19 onwards, the petitioner charged.