SC to hear petitions challenging EWS quota criteria in July

The validity of the ₹8 lakh criterion as the annual income limit had come into question while seeking EWS reservation in PG exam for the 2022-2023 batches

The Supreme Court on May 19 said it will begin hearing in July a series of petitions challenging the criteria fixed by the government to identify Economically Weaker Sections [EWS] of the society to grant 10% reservation in education and jobs.

A Bench led by Justice D. Y. Chandrachud has primarily raised the question on the government’s decision to fix ₹8 lakh as the annual income limit to identify the EWS category. The validity of the ₹8 lakh criterion had come into question while seeking EWS reservation in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) admissions.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, for the petitioners, submitted that the NEET-PG (post graduate) examination for the 2022-2023 batches was due soon.

“We will keep it as soon as the court reopens. We will give a date,” Justice Chandrachud said.

On January 17, 2019, the government had released an official memorandum [OM] informing that families earning a gross annual income below ₹8 lakh would be identified as EWS for benefit of reservation. The OM was issued just three days before the Constitution (One Hundred and Third) Amendment Act, which introduced the EWS quota, came into force on January 14, 2019.

The court had even wondered whether the ₹8 lakh threshold was “largely based” on the criterion to identify the creamy layer in the Other Backward Class [OBC] quota.

An expert committee headed by former Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, formed by the government to review the ₹8 lakh limit, had in its report maintained that the financial threshold was not a “mechanical adoption” of the OBC creamy layer cut-off.