Madras High Court. File | Photo credit: K. Picumani
A division bench of the Madras High Court stayed a single judge’s ruling against the registration and functioning of caste societies in the state, but made it clear that the temporary stay would only apply to the South Indian Senguntha Mahajana Sangam, which preferred a court appeal against the order.
A first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan granted an interim stay till February 11, 2026 and ordered notices to the Inspector General of Registration (IGR), Registrar of Companies, Chennai District and several other officials to seek their response to the appeal.
The stay was granted after advocate SP Chockalingam, representing the petitioner, told the court that his client had filed a writ petition in connection with an election to a registered company, but the single judge had issued sweeping directions unrelated to the case before him.
“Having regard to the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that without any challenge to the name/name of the petitioner company, directions were issued totally unrelated to the issue that arose for consideration in the writ petition, it is ordered that the impugned order(s) be upheld in so far as its application to this petitioner is concerned,” wrote the Bench.
Order of a single judge
It was Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy who on 16 April 2025 passed the orders which were challenged in the appeal, while disposing of a series of three writ petitions filed by the Chennai-based South Indian Senguntha Mahajana Sangam, Tiruchengode Vatta Kongu Velalar Sangam of Namakkal district and also the Chuenna Educational Fund.
Disapproving of the practice of registering caste-based societies, the judge ordered the IGR to draw up a list of societies that were named after specific castes, functioning to advance the interests of people belonging to that caste and offering membership only to them.
After compiling a list of all such societies across the state, the IGR was directed to issue notices to them instructing them to drop references to caste from their names, amend their bye-laws that perpetuate the caste system and open membership to all without any caste-based restrictions.
He further ordered that no school or college, whether a government or private institution, in the state should bear caste designations from the academic year 2025-26 and that all schools and colleges bearing caste designations, either directly or as part of donor names, must be issued such prefixes or suffixes.
If the school managements did not give up the caste designations, their recognition should be withdrawn and the students of these schools should be transferred to other recognized institutions from the academic year 2026-27, the judge said.
Thereafter, the judge also ordered the state government to implement the recommendations of a committee headed by retired Justice K. Chandra to remove terms like “Kallar Reclamation” and “Adi Dravidar Welfare” from the names of government schools.
Since the Constitutional Courts cannot entertain cases filed by caste associations, the judge said that associations which maintain the caste system cannot expect the High Court to come to their aid and exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to resolve disputes related to such associations.
Complaining that the caste system is not limited to one religion but extends to almost all religions, the judge pointed out that the Poor Educational Fund is a society that restricts membership to Gavaras, Balijas and Telagas belonging to the Catholic sect of Christianity.
“The caste system that prevails today has nothing to do with religion. In fact, it can be seen from the above that it cuts across religion and people are not willing to lift this burden from their heads and these fanatics will take it to the moon,” lamented the judge.
Published – 14 Jan 2026 15:27 IST
