Supreme Court Law Insider

Prerna Gala

Published on: September 6, 2022 at 18:02 IST

The cases contesting the constitutionality of reservations for economically disadvantaged sections were taken up by the Supreme Court Constitution Bench.

The 5-judge panel, which included Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, and JB Pardiwala, had previously decided to list the case for today, in order to establish a schedule for the hearing and the completion of other pre-hearing procedures.

The bench had said that hearings in the cases would begin on September 13.

What took place today in court?

The CJI-led bench in today’s sessions made it clear from the opening that the court would hear any State who wanted to forward remarks in the case and asked how much time each party would need to make their submissions.

The CJI verbally stated the following after considering the amount of time needed with the counsels:

“What we propose to do is, the questions which get thrown up, we may give some time extra to either side, so effectively 5 working days. 3 working days in first week and 2 in the second week. We begin the matter next Tuesday. One request, please don’t repeat submissions.”

Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General of India, responded that two days might be too little time for each side. Orally, the CJI stated that the exercise will be conducted in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and the court would proceed accordingly to hear the matter.

CJI UU Lalit narrated the order as follows, after additional discussion of the time needed and the factors that had to be taken into account:

“Some suggested issues by Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan have been placed for consideration. Those draft issues may be circulated to all counsels appearing in the matter and after consulting all the counsels, the crystallised version of issues be placed before the Court..”

“All states will be provided adequate opportunity to be heard. Before we begin the hearing in the main matter, we will list this matter again for directions so that hearing is conducted smoothly.”

The matter was therefore posted for directions on Thursday.

Background

The petitions contest the constitutionality of the 2019 Constitution (103rd) Amendment Act.

The Constitution’s Articles 15 and 16 were amended by the Parliament in January 2019 to add clause (6), which would provide for economic reservation in employment and education.

The recently added Article 15(6) gives the State the power to implement extraordinary measures, such as reservations in educational institutions, for the advancement of any economically underprivileged group of individuals.

Any educational institution, including private institutions, whether aided or unaided, is allowed to make this reservation, with the exception of minority educational institutions protected by Article 30(1).

It further specifies that ten percent will be the maximum reservation allowed, on top of any already made reservations.

Following the President’s notification of the modification, a number of petitions contesting the constitutionality of economic reservation were submitted to the SC. The cases were submitted to the Constitution Bench by a three-judge panel on August 5, 2020, which included the then- CJI SA Bobde, Justice R Subhash Reddy, and Justice BR Gavai.

Some of the referred questions deal with whether the 50% reservation cap can be exceeded in certain cases and if affirmative action can be given based solely on economic status.

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