Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 27: Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order regarding a number of pleas challenging the constitutionality of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which grants members of the economically weaker sections (EWS) a 10% reservation in admissions and government employment.
After hearing from a slew of senior attorneys, including Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, in the marathon hearing that lasted six and a half days, a five-judge Constitution bench presided over by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit reserved its decision on the legal question of whether the EWS quota violated the basic structure of the constitution.
Academician Mohan Gopal had begun the case’s arguments before the court on September 13. He opposed the EWS quota, calling it ‘deceitful and a backdoor attempt’ to destroy the concept of reservation.
The bench also included Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, and J B Pardiwala. Senior attorneys like Ravi Verma Kumar, P Wilson, Meenakshi Arora, Sanjay Parikh, and K S Chauhan as well as attorney Shadan Farasat criticised the quota, claiming it excluded the poor who fall under the categories of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and that this violated the idea of the ‘creamy layer.’
Up to 40 petitions were examined by the apex court, and the majority of them, including the main one brought by Janhit Abhiyan in 2019, disputed the legality of the Constitution Amendment (103rd) Act 2019.
The Central Government had submitted a number of petitions asking for the transfer of outstanding cases contesting the EWS quota rule from different high courts to the Supreme Court for a conclusive ruling.
On September 8, the bench created three main issues for determination in response to the arguments made against the Center’s decision to give EWS 10% preference in admissions and employment.
Notably, the bill was approved by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on January 8 and January 9, 2019 respectively, and Ram Nath Kovind, the president at the time, subsequently signed it. The present 50% reservation for SCs, STs, and other backward classes is in addition to the EWS quota (OBCs).
