Supreme Court to examine EWS quota criteria in March

The Supreme Court will examine the validity of the income criteria set for availing EWS quotas in March. The current limit is ₹8 lakh family income from all known sources of income per annum and the court had cast serious doubts on whether it was overinclusive.

Following SC's suggestion, the Centre had set up the Pandey committee which recommended that tweaks if any may be done only from the next academic year as last-minute changes in the criteria would delay counselling for medical admissions to UG and PG all-India quota seats.

The committee said that the income limit used to exclude creamy layer from OBC quotas was a reasonable criterion to cap those who can avail of EWS quotas. In the Pandey committee's opinion, a lower-income limit would increase the risk of excluding deserving candidates and to avoid undeserving candidates from taking the benefit of reservation, a set of simple asset criteria should be introduced instead of lowering the income limit. The court will examine all these issues threadbare in March.