More legal battles likely on EWS criteria, 50% quota cap | India News

NEW DELHI: Though a five-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench approved 10% quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) by a 3:2 majority, one more round of litigation seems to be on the horizon pertaining to its implementation as the court did not examine the criteria fixed by the Centre for EWS, including Rs 8 lakh income per annum, which the apex court earlier had observed to be unreasonable.
The issue relating to the 50% cap on reservation may also have to be examined by a larger bench in view of the Indra Sawhney judgement which was delivered by a nine-judge bench. The five-judge bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Ravinder Bhat, Bela Trivedi and JB Pardiwala had framed three questions to be decided by the bench and the issue of whether 50% quota is breachable or not was not among them.

The three issues before the bench were — (1) whether the 103rd Constitution amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria; (2) whether the amendment can be said to breach the basic structure by permitting the State to make special provisions in relation to admission to private unaided educational institutions; (3) and, whether the amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution in excluding the SEBCs/OBCs/SCs/STs from the scope of EWS reservation.
Interestingly, the minority verdict of the CJI and Justice Bhat did not examine the issue of 50% cap and left it untouched with a note of caution that the issue is pending before another bench on reservation in Tamil Nadu in breach of the cap.