10% EWS quota: Indian Supreme Court upholds reservation for economically poor in colleges, govt jobs
Majority of SC bench concurred that the law does not violate basic structure of Constitution
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the law that provides 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in educational institutions and government jobs in India.
The SC Constitution Bench upheld the law with a 3-2 majority, with Justice S Ravindra Bhat passing a dissenting judgement, and Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit concurring with it.
The majority of the judges held that the 103rd Constitutional Amendment did not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.
The judges had to decide if the law breached the 50 per cent ceiling limit while granting benefits; whether it erred while granting reservation solely on the basis of economic criteria; and whether it excluded the poor among the oppressed categories like the Scheduled Castes (SC)/ ScheduledTribes (ST)/ Other Backward Classes (OBC) from EWS Quota.
Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who read the judgement for himself, said the constitutional amendment cannot breach the 50 per cent ceiling limit because the limit is not inflexible.
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Justice Bela M Trivedi said the 103rd constitutional amendment cannot be struck down on grounds of being discriminatory, calling for the need to revisit the system of reservation in the larger interests of the society.
Justice J B Pardiwala concurred with their views and upheld the validity of the amendment.
The law, which gives 10 per cent reservation for poorer sections of India's "upper castes", was passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government months before the 2019 general elections.
The Cabinet decided that this would be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation for SC/ST/OBC categories.
The petitioners had questioned several aspects of the EWS quota, including how it could cross the 50 per cent national cap on reservation set by the Supreme Court in 1992 and whether it changed the "basic structure" of the constitution.
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