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Supreme Court upheld 103 constitutional amendment to provide 10% reservation for economically weaker section of society

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The five Judge bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by the Chief Justice of India Justice U. U Lalit upheld the constitutional validity of the 103rd constitutional amendment 2019 which provided for 10% reservation in public employment and educational institutions for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of society. The five Judge bench gave its 3:2 majority verdict on 7 November 2022.

Background to the case 

Indian constitution provides for reservation for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward classes in Public employment as per article 15 and in government educational institutions as per article 16 of the constitution.

To provide reservation to the poor of the unreserved section of the society, the government amended the constitution through 103 amendment 2019.

Main provision of the amendment  

• It inserted section 6 in article 15 of the constitution  to provide for 10% reservation for the EWS in public employment.(Public employment means  jobs provided by the Central government or  ,State government , central or state government enterprises or local bodies like municipality or panchayat )
• It inserted section 6 in the article 16 to provide for 10% reservation for the EWS in government educational institutions. It empowered the government to provide reservation in all educational institutions including private, whether aided or unaided except minority educational institutions as mentioned in article 30(1) .
• Aided private educational institutions means educational institutions receiving funds or other help from the government and unaided means they are not receiving any kind of help from the government.
• These 10% reservations will be in addition to the already existing reservation for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward classes. 
• The act gives the central government power to lay down the criteria for determining EWS.

Janhit Abhiyan and 32 others Vs Union of India 2019

The 103rd constitutional amendment 2019 was challenged in the Supreme Court by various petitions. The court clubbed all the petition together under the Janhit Abhiyan and 32 others  Vs Union of India 2019 case.

The main issues that were raised were as follows:

• Can reservations be granted solely on the basis of economic criteria?
• Can States (government) provide reservations in private educational institutions which do not receive government aid?
• Are EWS reservations constitutionally invalid for excluding Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Socially and Economically Backward Classes from its scope?
• Providing 10% reservation to EWS will breach the Supreme Court judgement that total reservation shall not be more than 50% and does it not violate the basic structure of the constitution?

Judgement of the court 

The five member bench of Chief Justice U. U Lalit, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt, Justice B.M. Trivedi and Justice J.B. Pardiwala gave a split verdict.

Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice B.M. Trivedi and Justice J.B. Pardiwala upheld the constitutional amendment while Justice U.U Lalit and Justice S. Ravindra Bhatt struck down the act.

Majority Judgement 

• The majority judgement in the case upheld the provision of the 103 constitutional amendment and held it does not violate the basic structure of the constitution.
• The EWS reservation does not violate the basic structure of the constitution by exceeding the 50% quota limit because the quota limit itself was flexible.
• It upheld reservation provision in private educational institutions as the private educational does use the community resources hence the government can provide for reservation in these institutions.

Minority Judgement 

The Chief Justice of India U. U Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhatt gave the minority judgement.

•  They declared the constitutional amendment as violative of the basic structure of the constitution as it excluded the poor amongst the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, in the definition of the EWS. 
• It was against the principle of equality as mentioned in the constitution which is a basic structure of the constitution..
• However they agreed that reservation can be provided on the economic criteria.