Swarna Shukla-

Published on : November 26 , 2021, 17:30 IST

The Union Government agreed to “revisit” the criteria for the “economically backward among forwards” to get reservation benefits in Government jobs and educational institutions.

Appearing before the Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kantr and Vikram Nath, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that he was asked to make a statement before that the Government has decided to revisit the matter, also a committee would be set up to examine the issue.

The Top Court was hearing a batch of Petition filed by MBBS Doctors challenging Union’s decision to implement 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% reservation for Economic Weaker Sections(EWS) in admission in Post Graduate courses in medical colleges in All India Quota. However, the litigation pertains to admission in PG medical courses, admission process in all government-run institutions and recruitment of government jobs will be affected.

The Supreme Court expressed its discontent over the Centre for adequately explaining the basis for fixing an income limit of Rs 8 lakh for granting reservation to EWS and directed it to file an Affidavit to disclose whether any exercise was done and what was the reason behind the decision.

The Centre further contended before the Apex Court that the Centre referred to Sinho Commission for fixing the income limit and said that it would not be easy or practicable to consider differentiated criteria given disparities in urban and rural settings.

The Court questioned how Rs 8 lakh could be fixed for both EWS and OBC categories to be eligible for reservation. It said there was a social and educational backwardness attached with the OBC category and it was presumed that their backwardness came to an end with economic advancement.

As the admission process for PG courses got delayed, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar argued that the Government should implement its decision to enforce OBC and EWS reservation in the all-India quota from the next academic year or the government should take a decision on EWS criteria within two weeks.

Advocate Vivek Singh, representing for a batch Of MBBS Doctors, submitted that the Court should in the meantime decide the validation of OBC reservation in All India Quota. The Bench said four weeks is a reasonable time.

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