"Can't Afford To Lose Democracy...": Supreme Court On DMK-AIADMK Row

The country cannot afford to lose democracy by allowing parties in power to overrule the wisdom of their political opponents with the use of State machinery, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday as it reflected on the tussle between the successive DMK and AIADMK governments in Tamil Nadu over an employment scheme.

The top court's remark came while setting aside an order of the Madras High Court which directed the Tamil Nadu government to create the posts under the designation "Village Level Workers" known as "Makkal Nala Paniyalargal" (MNP) and accommodate the persons who were on the rolls of MNP on the date of issuance of a government order dated November 8, 2011, against vacant posts.

The Tamil Nadu government had introduced a scheme dated September 2, 1989 through the Rural Development Department providing employment to the educated youth in rural areas who had completed 10th standard for various items of work in the village panchayat.

The DMK government led by M Karunanidhi launched the 'Makkal Nala Paniyalargal' scheme to employ educated youth in 12,617 village panchayats across the state.   However, the AIADMK government which succeeded the DMK dispensation abolished the scheme in 1991.  

The DMK government again restored it in 1997 but the AIADMK annulled it in 2001. The scheme was resurrected in 2006 but again the AIADMK government did away with MNPs in 2011.

In 2014, the Madras High Court ordered the reinstatement of the workers but the AIADMK government obtained an interim injunction from the Supreme Court.

In the judgement pronounced on Tuesday, a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi said the consistent policy which has come on record is in itself an indicator to show that as and when the decision was taken to abandon or abolish the scheme, it was only for political reasons and not based on any substantial or valid reason on record.

"It reveals from the record that as and when there was change of political scenario, the successive political party always disbanded/cancelled the policy decision of earlier Government in power which had introduced a scheme for offering employment to the educated unemployed youth.

"We cannot afford to lose democracy in our country by permitting the political parties empowered to overrule the wisdom of their political opponents with the use of State machinery," the bench said.

The Supreme Court said the direction of the high court to reinstate the workers after creating the posts and absorbing the respondents based on their qualifications is not sustainable in law and deserves outright rejection.

"We make it clear that such persons who have joined pursuant to the scheme introduced by the Government dated June 7, 2022, in fulfilment of the object of the Act, 2005 shall remain coterminus with the scheme and be allowed to continue as long as the scheme remain in force.   

"At the same time, such persons who have not joined pursuant to the scheme dated June 7, 2022, they are at liberty to accept their payments for the intervening period of six months from December 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012 of the principal amount of Rs 25,851 to the MNP," the bench said.

On such application being filed, the appellants shall make over the money to such MNP through RTGS or any other mode after due verification within three months, the top court said.  

The Tamil Nadu government had on June 7, 2022 introduced a scheme to provide employment to the educated unemployed youth under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to engage one person for every panchayat who had discontinued as MNP.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)