Petition in Supreme Court challenges bill introducing EWS quota

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Constitution Amendment Bill passed by Parliament to provide 10%reservation for the economically weak among the unreserved categories on the grounds that it breaches the 50% ceiling on quotas.

The petition, filed on behalf of non-governmental organisation Youth for Equality, which works to remove quotas, challenged the bill contending that it is violative of the basic structure doctrine and the apex court’s ruling in the Indra Sawhney case.

The court had in the 1992 ruling in the case, also known as the Mandal Commission case, while upholding 27% reservation for the OBCs, said that poverty alone cannot be used as a criterion for providing reservation.


Both Houses have passed the bill but the President has yet to give his assent to it. The NGO sought a stay on and quashing of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2019, which provides for 10% reservation for all those who do not fall within the existing SC, ST and OBC quotas.