As per the latest development, upholding the 103rd constitutional amendment, the Supreme Court of India finally gave a green flag to 10% quota for the economically weaker section (EWS). Notably, now the EWS category beneficiaries can avail the benefit of this quota in the central government jobs as well as admission in the national institutions.
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A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala, announced the verdict, adding that the amendment does not violate the constitution in any way. Justice Maheshwari, reading the verdict, cleared that the 103rd amendment in the constitution is valid.
Similarly, according to Justice Trivedi, the reservation policy has to be reviewed and should have a deadline. While upholding the validity of the modification, Justice Pardiwala pointed out that reservations cannot be made indefinitely and concurred with Justice Trivedi that the reservation policy needs to be reviewed.
However, Justice Bhatt, in contrast, disagreed with the majority judgement and argued that it was unfair to deny the poor SCs, STs, and OBCs the right to the reservation benefit under the EWS (Economically Weaker Section) category. Notably, the 103rd amendment in the constitution was passed by the parliament in the winter session during January 2019.
The amendment was not opposed by the majority of opposition parties, including the main opposition party – Indian National Congress. However, the Supreme Court heard up to 40 petitions challenging it, including one from the state of Tamil Nadu, which has some of the highest levels of racial discrimination in the nation.
Moreover, the case was initially heard by three judges, who in 2019, forwarded it to a larger five-judge panel. Furthermore, the court reserved its judgement after a protracted six-and-a-half day hearing in September. Meanwhile, now the 10% quota for the EWS has been passed by the Supreme Court of India.
