A fresh reservation dispute has put the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government and one of its own election candidates on seemingly contrasting legal tracks.
Dr. A. Sridharan, who contested the 2026 Assembly election for TVK from the Valparai (SC) constituency, has challenged the election of DMK’s Kutty alias Sudhakar, questioning whether Sudhakar was legally eligible to contest from a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency, as reported in Sekar Reporter.
Sridharan secured 45,300 votes and finished second, while Sudhakar won with 54,671 votes. The Election Commission’s final results identify Valparai as an SC-reserved constituency and record both candidates as having contested under the SC category.
The petition’s central issue is Sudhakar’s religious status.
According to the petition, Sudhakar declared himself a “Hindu Paraiyar” in his Form 26. Sridharan, however, relies on several materials which he says indicate that Sudhakar professes Christianity.
These allegedly include his marriage according to Christian rites at a CSI church, his birth into a Christian family, his father’s burial in a CSI cemetery according to Christian rites, his participation in church prayers and a newspaper report referring to his Christian faith.
The petition argues that these circumstances have to be examined against Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which states that a person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot be deemed to be a Scheduled Caste.
The Supreme Court, in its 24 March 2026 judgment, held that conversion to a religion outside these three results in the loss of SC status and the benefits attached to it. The Court also held that whether a person professes a particular religion is a question of fact.
The judgment was subsequently challenged in a review petition. On 3 September 2026, the Supreme Court dismissed the review, finding “no error apparent on the face of the record” and leaving the March ruling intact.
Sridharan further argues that even if Sudhakar claims to have subsequently reconverted to Hinduism, there is allegedly no documentary evidence of such reconversion or of acceptance into the Hindu Paraiyar community.
The petition also relies on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Lilly Kutty v. Scrutiny Committee, which held that obtaining a false Scheduled Caste certificate to secure benefits to which a person is not entitled amounts to “fraud on the Constitution.”
The TVK Government’s Own Reservation Battle
This is where the political contrast emerges.
A TVK candidate is challenging a rival’s SC eligibility on the ground that alleged Christian profession would bar him from claiming SC status.
In the Valparai case, Sridharan is relying on the constitutional bar on persons professing Christianity or Islam being treated as SCs.
The Valparai court will now have to examine the evidence cited by Sridharan and determine whether Sudhakar was, in fact, professing Christianity and, consequently, whether he was legally entitled to contest the SC-reserved seat.
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