The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the ceiling of 50% reservation is not sacrosanct — citing the recent example of Maratha reservation in Maharashtra — to justify its law providing 10% reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS) of the population across the unreserved, open category admissions and jobs.
The court has, meanwhile, reserved its orders on whether the petitions challenging the validity of the law required to be heard by a Constitution bench.
The case witnessed an interesting clash of opinions as a bench of Justices SA Bobde, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai felt that since reservation based on economic criteria is being made for the first time in the country, the matter deserved to be looked into by a Constitution bench of at least five judges.
The bunch of petitioners supported this view, but the Centre was defiant, resisting any such move by the court. Attorney General KK Venugopal informed the Court that 50% reservation rule is not fixed, but flexible. He also claimed that the government was attempting to help the downtrodden in the society so nobody can say that such people should not be given a "helping hand" to uplift them. Recently, the Bombay HC allowed 12-13% Maratha reservation and the same was not stayed when the SC heard appeals against the HC order.
The 103rd Constitution Amendment, which is in question, had introduced new sections under Article 15 and 16, paving way for the Centre and states to uplift economically weaker sections outside the ambit of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Venugopal said that this essentially does not eat into the existing 50% reservation for OBC/SC/ST, but simply takes a slice from the remaining 50% seats or posts in the general category.
The petitioners, however, demanded a stay of the operation of the 10% quota. The bench said it will examine this issue at a later stage after considering the question on referring the matter to a Constitution bench.
GOVT’S ARGUMENT
Venugopal said that this essentially does not eat into the existing 50% reservation for OBC/SC/ST, but simply takes a slice from the remaining 50% seats or posts in the general category.
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