New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s 5-judge constitutional bench’s three judges have upheld the 103rd amendment to the Constitution introducing 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the educational institutes.
A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela M Trivedi and J B Pardiwala gave a majority verdict and the 103rd amendment to the 2019 Constitution has been declared constitutional and valid. The court said that the EWS quota did not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court said that the EWS quota does not impede the 50% quota for socially and economically backward classes. The EWS quota will benefit the general category poor. The EWS quota does not violate the right to equality before the law and equal opportunity on the basis of religion, caste, class, gender or place of birth and in public employment. At the same time, Justice Ravindra Bhat said that out of this 10% reservation, SC / ST / ST / the exclusion of OBCs is discriminatory.
CJI Lalit termed it unconstitutional and Justice S Ravindra Bhat also disagreed and termed it unconstitutional. Both have disagreed with the majority decision.
“By agreeing with the views of the majority and upholding the validity of the amendment, I say that reservation is a means to secure economic justice and vested interest should not be allowed in it,” Justice Pardiwala said. This exercise to eradicate this cause started after independence and continues even now.