NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has upheld the 103rd Constitution Amendment providing for 10% quota for the economically weaker sections (EWS) from unreserved categories.
The beneficiaries can avail the quota for admission to Centre-run as well as private, unaided institutions and central government jobs.
A five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala, in a 3-2 verdict, held that the provisions of the concerned amendment is not in violation of the Constitution.
At the outset, Chief Justice U U Lalit said there are four different judgements on pleas challenging the
EWS quota.
Reading out the verdict, Justice Maheshwari said that 103rd Constitutional amendment is valid and does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.
Justice Trivedi said that there is a need to revisit the reservation policy and it should have a time span. Justice Pardiwala, while holding the amendment valid, observed that reservation cannot go on indefinitely and agreed with Justice Trivedi on a need to re-examine the reservation policy.
However, Justice Bhatt disagreed with the majority verdict and said leaving out the poor from SCs/STs/ OBCs from availing the reservation benefit under EWS category is discriminatory.
Justice to the country’s poor.
Party general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh in his reaction said, “Another big credit for PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Gareeb Kalyan. A big boost in the direction of social justice .”
While delivering the verdict on the validity of EWS quota, the SC bench had considered three broad questions.
Is quota based on economic criteria valid?
The Constitution does not talk about the concept of preferential treatment on the basis of a person’s economic status. The bench therefore mulled on.
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