Supreme Court Upholds EWS Reservation With 3:2 Majority

A five-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India on Monday upheld a 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in education and public employment with a 3-2 majority. Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela Trivedi and JB Pardiwala were in favour of the EWS quota, whereas CJI UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat disagreed with the majority view.

The petitions challenged the validity of Constitution (103rd) Amendment Act 2019. Economic reservation in jobs and education was proposed to be provided by inserting clause (6) in Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution through the amendment passed by the Parliament in January 2019.

Justice Maheshwari while reading out the verdict said, "EWS reservation does not violate the equality code or violate essential feature of constitution and breach of 50 per cent does not violate basic structure as the ceiling limit is here only for 16(4) and (5)." 

"Reservation on economic basis does not violate the basic structure or Constitution of India," he added.

Justice Trivedi said that there is a need to revisit the reservation policy and it should have a time span. 

Justice Pardiwala, while holding the amendment valid, observed that reservation cannot go on indefinitely and agreed with Justice Trivedi on a need to re-examine the reservation policy.

However, Justice Bhatt disagreed with the majority verdict and said leaving out the poor from SCs/STs/ OBCs from availing the reservation benefit under EWS category is discriminatory.