Arguments employed by the Supreme Court in its majority verdict to uphold the 10% economically weaker sections (EWS) quota for the “poorest of the poor” among forward castes can paradoxically become a stimulus for the backward classes to seek reservation over and above the 50% ceiling limit on the basis of the data published after the Bihar caste-based survey.
The EWS judgment had excluded the “poorest of the poor” among the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes from the ambit of 10% quota.
