Supreme Court, in a majority verdict, upholds the EWS quota The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in a 3:2 majority decision, upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which provides 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of society but excludes the “poorest of poor” among Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) from its scope. Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela M. Trivedi and J.B. Pardiwala delivered the majority opinions on the five judge Bench in an hourlong session. Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat gave the minority view. The three judges in the majority held that reservation on economic criterion alone did not violate the Basic Structure of the Constitution. Reservation is not a long time solution Justice Bela M. Trivedi, who was part of the majority judgment, said the reservation policy must have a time span. She pointed out that at the end of 75 years of our Independence, India need to revisit the system of reservation in the larger interest of the society as a whole, as a step forward towards transformative constitutionalism. The representation of AngloIndian communities in Parliament and Assemblies has already stopped by virtue of the 104th Constitutional Amendment from January 25, 2020. Long-term solution, however, lies in eliminating the causes that have led to the social, educational and economic backwardness of the weaker sections of the community. State to set norms to identify the beneficiaries of EWS quota The majority judgment of the Constitution Bench held that the lack of guidelines to identify economic backwardness under the 10% EWS quota cannot be used to question the 103rd Amendment. The question as to whether any particular section or person falls within the class…
