The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 103rd constitutional amendment, which was implemented to give legal support to the Modi government's decision to carve out 10% of the unreserved classes for the economically weaker sections for admission to educational institutions and government jobs by a vote of 3:2. The court also held that the 50% quota cap is not inviolable and that affirmative action on the basis of economic status may go a long way toward ending caste-based reservation.
A five-judge panel led by Chief Justice U U Lalit and including Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S. Ravindra Bhat, Bela M. Trivedi and J. B. Pardiwala unanimously (3:2) approved the change, bringing the overall rate of reservation in central institutions to 59.50%. All judges, however, concurred that, in light of the constitutional amendment, reservations based on economic status were justified. They also approved the amount of the quota, which exceeded the 50% cap that the SC had established in the Indra Sawhney case.
The ruling opens the door for more attempts by governments to provide above 50% quotas in government jobs and educational institutions on grounds of social and educational backwardness as well as economic deprivation. The decision expands the grounds for affirmative action beyond social and educational backwardness to include economic backwardness.
While Justices Maheshwari, Trivedi and Pardiwala did not find any fault in the amendment saying that it was a right step towards an egalitarian society, Chief Justice Lalit and Justice Bhat said that not allowing the poor from SCs/STs/OBCs to get benefit of EWS quota and permitting only the poor from forward classes is discriminatory and “strikes a death knell to the equality and fraternal principle which permeates the equality code and non-discrimination principle”.
While the minority verdict was written by Justice Bhat on behalf of himself and the CJI, the three judges who supported the amendment filed separate but concurrent opinions. According to the majority, excluding SCs, STs, and OBCs from the EWS quota does not in any way violate the equality code or undermine the Constitution's fundamental principles.
