A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit on September 8, 2022 finalised three cardinal issues for examining whether the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which provides 10% quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society in government jobs and educational institutions, violates the Basic Structure of the Constitution.
The five-judge Bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat, Dinesh Maheshwari, S.B. Pardiwala and Bela Trivedi, will start hearing the arguments from September 13.
The court will examine whether the amendment breaches the Basic Structure by permitting the state to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria; whether it violates the Basic Structure by allowing the state to make special provisions in relation to admissions to private unaided institutions, and lastly, whether the Basic Structure is trampled upon by the constitutional amendment by excluding SEBC/OBC/SC/ST communities from the scope of the EWS quota.
