Remove caste references in school, college names in Tamil Nadu, orders Madras High Court

The Superior Court of Madras ordered that notices must be issued to schools and colleges why carry the caste denomination, either directly or as part of the names of donors, to eliminate such references within four weeks. File | Photo credit: the Hindu

In a significant verdict, the Superior Court of Madras on Wednesday (April 16, 2025) ordered that no school or university, whether administered by the government or a private institution, in Tamil Nadu should carry a caste denomination of the academic year 2025-26.

Judge D. Bharatha Chakravarthy ordered that notices should be issued to all schools and colleges that carry caste denomination, either directly or as part of the names of the donors, to launch such prefixes or suffixes with four weeks. If the school administrations in question fail to eliminate caste denominations, their recognition must be withdrawn and students from such schools must be transferred to other recognized institutions of the 2026-27 academic year, the judge said.

The judge also ordered the state government to implement the recommendations made by a committee headed by the retired judge K. Chandru to eliminate terms such as ‘Advertising Kallar’ and ‘Adi Dravidar Welfare’ of the names of government schools.

In addition, the judge ordered the inspector General of Registration to draw a list of companies that had been appointed after private castes, the interests of the people who belong to a particular caste and sacrifice the memory only for them work with the promotion objective.

After drawing the list of all these societies throughout the state, notices with instructions must be issued to eliminate caste references from their names, amend their statutes that perpetuate the caste system and open the membership of all Howd. Restrictions

The registration inspector was ordered to begin the exercise of issuing notices within three months and completing the entire process within six months of the same. The judge said that the Constitutional Courts would not entertain cases presented by caste -based associations.

Judge Chakravarthy also observed that the associations that perpetuate the distribution system could not expect the Superior Court to be rescued and exercise their written jurisdiction under articles 226 of the Constitution to resolve disputes.

The sentence was approved by getting rid of a lot of three writing requests presented by Senguntha Mahajana Sangam from Southern India based in Chennai, Tumuclengode Vatta Kongu Velalar Sangam of the Namakkal district and the poor educational background. Of Chennai.

Lasting that the caste system was not limited to a religion, but that almost all religions are going through, the judge pointed out that the poor educational fund was a society that restricts the membership to the gavaras, balijas and belonging cloths.

“The caste system that prevails as on the date does not have to do anything with religion. In fact, it can be seen from the above that religion is cutting, and people are not willing to leave this load of the moon and these rugats.