New Delhi: Tomorrow, on November 7, the Supreme Court will issue orders on the constitutionality of reservations for economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher education and issues of public employment.
In the last week of September, the constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, Justice Bela M Trivedi, and Justice JB Pardiwala, has reserved the order after all the parties concluded their arguments.
The petitioners argued in front of the Supreme Court that making reservations based on economic criteria, excluding SC, ST, and OBC Non-Creamy Layer, violates the equality code.
The Centre has previously argued before the Supreme Court that the EWS reservation does not violate the fundamental structure.
The reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS), according to the then-Attorney General of India KK Venugopal, does not violate the basic structure doctrine.
He also claimed that nothing had changed for SC-ST and OBC, but that the EWS quota was not intended to affect the 50% reservation. This 10% is in a different compartment, he claimed.
Before a constitutional supreme court bench, the AG was defending the constitution’s 103 amendments that provided for the EWS reservation.
KK Venugopal, India’s then-Attorney General, has also proposed an affirmative action amendment for the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Reservation for EWS does not erode rights granted to SC, ST, and OBC.