A policy decision on issuance of income certificates to people belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in Tamil Nadu will be taken by a group of senior ministers, the state government informed the Madras High Court on Tuesday.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan made the submission before a bench of justices R Subbiah and Krishnan Ramasamy on a batch of petitions challenging a recent revenue department order not to issue income or assets certificates to EWS required for availing reservation benefits for the category. The entire issue has now been referred to the group of senior ministers to take a policy decision and the decision taken will be reported to the court on July 13, he said.

Petitioners, including Akhila Bharatha Brahmin Association, submitted the Commissioner of Revenue Administration had on June 4 issued an order directing the district collectors to instruct their subordinates not to issue income certificates or assets certificates to economically weaker sections either online or manually. Though the state government had issued a circular to all the district authorities to issue income and assets certifications to the EWS on May 4, 2019, the circular had been withdrawn now, they said.Because of this, people in the EWS category would not be able to apply for any posts under the ten per cent quota in the central government jobs and admission to educational institutions provided through the 103rd Constitutional amendment, petitioners contended. Alleging that the impugned circular directing not to issue any income certificate to the EWS people was unconstitutional, the petitioners sought to quash it.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Advocate General (AG) submitted the erstwhile Commissioner of Revenue Administration had, independently without consulting the government, issued a circular directing his subordinates to issue the certificates to EWS category people. The present commissioner, after consultation with the government, had on June 4 withdrawn the previous circular. Now the issue was before the group of senior ministers for a policy decision, the AG said.

Taking note of the submission that the court would be informed about the decision taken by the group of ministers, the bench posted the matter for further hearing to July 13.