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Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla has filed a petition in front of Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional (103rd Amendment) Act of 2019 which introduced the 10% EWS (Economically-Weaker Sections) quota.
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi who is heading the bench has stated that it was not staying amendment in the interim and has allowed the issue clubbing it with the PIL filed earlier by Advocates Reepak Kansal and Pawan and the NGO Youth for Equality for an early hearing.
The basic challenge that the amendment is infringing the basic structure of the Constitution where the ceiling of reservation is only up to 50% but with this aspect the reservation cap is exceeding which was kept a ceiling mark in the 1993 Indira Sawhney case.
Considering that so far 27 percent quota is allotted to the OBCs and another 22 percent to the SC/STs on account of their social and educational backwardness, with this additional quota of 10% on grounds of economic backwardness, the total reservation shoots up to approximately 60 percent. They have added that in the 9 judge bench decision the court has stated that reservation should be for both social and educationally backward but not Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
It was stated that amendment is unsustainable as the benefit was given to only general category candidates adding to which it was contrary to the SC judgments in the TMA Pai and PA Inamdar cases, as it imposed reservation in private unaided educational institutions.
Earlier, on January 25, the apex court had issued notice on the other petitions, declining a stay on even that occasion.
On January 19, the DoPT issued an Office Memorandum making the EWS quota effective for all direct recruitment vacancies in central government posts and services notified after February 1, 2019.
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