Supreme Court reserves verdict on EWS Quota – On Wednesday, the Supreme Court reserved its order regarding the plea of reservation related to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). It was referring to a Constitution Bench over 103rd Constitution Amendment Act, 2019. It provides 10% reservation to those citizens who belong to the recently formulated EWS category.
On April 15, this year the Govt of India has approved the provisions for the reservation of EWS students in order to grant them admission in Central Educational institutes.
Justice S A Bobade who was heading one of the benches reserved this order. It states that after hearing both the parties, whether it is required to refer this case to the Constitution Bench. Recently, Attorney General K K Venugopal had explained that the 10% reservation quota was not violating the Indian Constitution basic structure He justified the decision of govt regarding the same. He added that with EWS, the govt was trying to provide benefits to the weaker and poorer citizens of General Category. There has been reports of such sections being deprived of several facilities.
Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhawan, who was appearing for one of the petitioners said that the judge should refer this matter to a larger bench. They can decide the questions regarding basic structure where the 103rd Amendment alters one of the basic features of the Constitution which is regarding the definition of Equality in terms of identity as well as width.
Dhawan also stated that 10% economic quota was in breach of ceiling which the court had declared in its earlier judgements. On July 1, 2019 the apex court, in its judgement had refused to put a stay on the decision of the Centre to grant a quota of 10% in Education as well as Govt Jobs to the EWS people. The court had also stated that this issue needs a lengthy hearing.
