The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on December 5, 2022 sought a review of a Supreme Court judgment upholding the 10% quota granted to economically weaker sections (EWS) in government jobs and educational institutions, saying the leeway has made a large section of upper caste population eligible for “easy exclusive luxurious” reservations.
The decision to file the petition urging the apex court to have a re-look at its majority judgment came after DMK President and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin convened an all-party meeting.
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The petition, settled by senior advocate P. Wilson, said the judgment had re-written the settled law laid down by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court which froze reservation at 50%, leaving the remaining half to meritorious candidates.
The petition said the 103rd Constitutional Amendment which introduced the 10% EWS quota into the Constitution “has given them [advanced classes] a mask to hide behind the misleading term of ‘economically weaker sections’.”
The DMK, through Mr. Wilson, argued that the term EWS has not been clearly defined. It benefits a class which has not suffered social stigma or absence of opportunity from joining the mainstream.
“The Constitutional Amendment does not justify as to why economic criteria is alone considered for providing such reservations. Neither Article 46 nor the Constitution defines weaker sections. Article 46 aims to promote education and economic interest of Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes and other similar weaker groups,” the DMK argued.
N.M. Thomas case
It pointed to the court’s own seven-judge Bench judgment in the N.M. Thomas case which said that weaker sections do not mean every backward class but those dismally depressed categories comparable economically and educationally to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Supreme Court judgment in the EWS case did not explain how a group which has been generationally “bestowed with ‘cultural capital’ (communication skills, accent, books, social networks or academic accomplishments) that they inherited from their families” could be called a weaker section of the society.
The petition said the Sinho Commission Report relied by the Union for enacting the 103rd Constitutional Amendment itself had claimed that there was no authenticated data to support the data of below poverty line in economically backward class who were outside the reservation net.
Again, the DMK pointed out that the judgment had approved discrimination by permitting the exclusion of the poor from ST, SC and OBC categories from the 10% reservation.
