Supreme Court upholds 10% EWS reservation, says it does not violate basic structure of Constitution

Supreme Court on Monday upheld the 103rd Constitution Amendment providing for 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections (EWS) from unreserved categories.

According to news agency ANI, four judges uphold the Act while one judge passes a dissenting judgement.

The five-judge constitution bench is headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit. 

Earlier, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the Economically Weaker Sections have been given 10 per cent quota in admissions and jobs out of 50 per cent general category seats without eroding the “totally independent” reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.

Altogether 18.2 percent of the total population in the general category belonged to EWS, the law officer said and referred to the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index used by the Niti Ayog.

The reservation for OBCs, SCs and STs fall under different silos other than the EWS quota and it does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution, Attorney General KK Venugopal asserted.

It may be worth noting that the SCs, STs and OBCs receive political reservation as well under the Constitution, and there are no ceiling limits to the extent of reservation each of the groups can receive.

Earlier, the top court had on September 15 refused to entertain a submission about Parliament having cleared the 103rd constitutional amendment to provide 10 per cent quota to the EWS without much debate, saying it was “barred from entering into that arena”.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cleared the 103rd Amendment Bill on January 8 and 9 in 2019 respectively before it was signed into law by then President Ram Nath Kovind.

The apex court had said the constitution bench will also decide whether the 103rd amendment breached the doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution by allowing the state to make such special provisions. 

With PTI inputs