Chennai, Sept. 13: The Tamil Nadu government today declared a 3.5 per cent quota for backward Muslims and Christians.

The job and education quota will be carved out of the 30 per cent reservation for Backward Classes. It will benefit only those Muslims and Christians who are already listed in this category.

The DMK government made the official announcement of the quota today. It will come into effect from September 15, the 99th birth anniversary of party founder C.N. Annadurai, chief minister M. Karunanidhi said.

Allowing a 3.5 per cent quota from an existing one for Backward Classes is also being seen as a way out of legal tangles, sources said, as the Constitution does not allow reservation exclusively on the basis of religion. Southern states Kerala and Karnataka already have such quotas within quotas.

In Tamil Nadu, reservation for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes adds up to 69 per cent on the state quota list. Eighteen per cent is reserved for SCs, 1 per cent for STs and 20 per cent for the Most Backward Classes, apart from the 30 per cent for Backward Classes.

The sources in Chennai said the announcement could be a move to deflect attention from recent criticism against the DMK patriarch that his party was dominated by “family rule”.

Karunanidhi’s poet-daughter Kanimozhi is the latest induction, having been nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

His second son, M.K. Stalin, holds crucial portfolios in the state government and elder son M.K. Azhagiri is the party strongman in the south.

Karunanidhi said his government was implementing the quota as promised in the DMK’s 2006 Assembly poll manifesto and later iterated in the governor’s first address to the Assembly last year.

The 2001 census shows that Muslims account for 5.56 per cent and Christians 6.07 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population of 62.41 million.

SC quota concern

The Supreme Court today expressed concern over the increasing number of castes on the backward classes list for quotas in jobs and educational institutions.

“Is there a list of total number of castes?” asked a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan. “It is strange that when we do not have an outer limit we are adding more castes to the list.”

The court’s observation came during hearing on a petition filed by anti-quota activists.

“India is shining but backwardness is increasing rapidly with the number of backward castes,” he said.