A Constitution Bench on Tuesday asked the Centre, States and petitioners to firm up a slew of concerns raised in the Supreme Court about granting reservation on a purely economic basis, one of them being whether it is a violation of the very basic structure of the Constitution to exclude Scheduled Castes, Tribes and some of the most impoverished, socially and educationally backward classes in the country from the scope of the quota.
The five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit is considering the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which provides a 10% quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society in government jobs and educational institutions.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, on the court’s orders, had prepared the draft legal issues for the Bench to examine.
