SC refuse to stay 10% quota to EWS in jobs, education

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass any immediate order of stay on the Centre's law to give 10 % quota for economically weaker sections in job and education. A bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, however, agreed for early hearing of the matter. The court ordered for clubbing all petitions including by Congress supporter, Tehseen Poonawalla.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Poonawalla, submitted his only apprehension is that they should not cross ceiling of 50% of reservation put by the top court earlier.

"At this stage, we are not inclined to pass any order," the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, said.

The court had earlier admitted similar petitions challenging the validity of the Constitution (103 rd Amendment) Act, 2019 which granted reservation to poor general category candidates.

In his petition, Poonawalla sought a direction for quashing of the law on the ground that backwardness for the purpose of reservation cannot be defined by "economic status alone".

"The Constitutional amendment formally violated the law laid down by the Supreme Court's 1992 ruling in Indra Sawhney case and the principle that backwardness for the purposes of reservation cannot be defined on economic status alone but must be rooted in social exclusion," it said.

An organisation, 'Youth for Equality' had already filed a writ petition challenging the validity of the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019 which was passed by the both the Houses of Parliament after being presented as the Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019. It sought a direction to stay the operation of the Act and quash it.

The petition contended that the insertion of Articles 15(6) and 16(6) in the Constitution would “alter the basic structure of the Constitution and to annul binding judgments of the Supreme Court”.

The 10% quota for economically weaker sections in government jobs and higher educational institutions, including in private sector, became the law of the land after President Ram Nath Kovind on January 12 gave his assent to it.