The Union government on Tuesday set up a three-member committee to review annual income criteria to determine economically weaker sections for claiming benefits of reservation in jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
After the Supreme Court's direction on October 21, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment formed the panel, comprising former Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Social Science Research, VK Malhotra, and Principal Economic Advisor, Sanjay Sanyal.
According to the terms of reference, the committee would revisit criteria fixed on January 17, 2019, for determining economic weaker sections to avail of the 10 per cent quota under Article 15 of the Constitution, following the 103rd Constitution Amendment Act.
The panel would examine various approaches so far followed in the country for identifying economically weaker sections and recommend the criteria to be adopted in future for the purpose, an office memorandum stated. The committee has been given three weeks time to complete the exercise.
Last week, the Centre had assured the top court to review the Rs 8 lakh annual income criterion to determine the category of the economically weaker section for reservation in NEET postgraduation medical courses.
On October 25, the court had directed the Centre to put on hold counselling for NEET-PG until it decided the validity of OBC and EWS reservation in the All India Quota (AIQ). A group of petitioners led by Neil Aurelio Nunes challenged the Centre's notification of July 29 to implement OBC and EWS reservation in NEET-All India Quota from the current academic session in PG courses.
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