The latest amendment to the State of Persons Studied in Tamil Medium Act, 2010 will now enable Tamil medium students from the state to be recruited under 20% reservation in government services. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit accorded his assent to the bill that was passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in March this year.

According to the amendment, the candidate will have to have completed their studies upto the qualifying exam as specified by the exam so as to benefit from the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) quota in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) recruitment. This means if the qualifying exam is Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC), then the candidate should have studied and qualified the exam under Tamil medium of instruction.

If it is a Higher Secondary Course exam, then they should have completed both SSLC and  HSC exams in Tamil medium of education. Same goes for qualifications that prescribe SSLC + Diploma and SSLC + HSC + Diploma.

Upon receiving the Governor’s nod, the gazette notification dated December 7 was issued.

Recently, in a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate G Sakthi Rao in Madurai, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalenthi suo moto took up the case and questioned the delay. This decision was pending for over eight months.

Notably, in other matters relating to reservation, Tamil Nadu Governor had taken a while to give his ascent on the 7.5% horizontal reservation in undergraduate medical courses for NEET-qualified state government school students.

On October 29, tired of delay and to facilitate immediate admissions of deserving candidates, Tamil Nadu government issued a government order allowing 7.5% horizontal reservation. Executive directions under Article 162 of the Constitution of India were issued in this regard. While the Bill was passed in the Assembly by the state government in September this year, the Governor’s nod was awaited for close to two months.