A five-judge bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi and J B Pardiwala approved the amendment by majority (3:2), which would push the total reservation to 59.50% in central institutions.
Explained: What is 10% EWS quota that Supreme Court upheld for ‘Economically Weaker Sections’
However, all judges agreed that reservation on the basis of economic status was justified in the light of the constitutional amendment, while also approving the quantum of the quota going beyond the 50% ceiling that the SC had laid down in the Indra Sawhney case. In their dissenting verdict, CJI Lalit and Justice Bhat struck down the amendment holding the exclusion of SCs, STs and OBCs from the purview of economic backwardness to be “discriminatory and arbitrary”.
The judgment expands the grounds for affirmative action beyond social and educational backwardness to include economic backwardness, while also clearing the way for more attempts by governments to provide above 50% quota in government jobs and educational institutions on grounds of social and educational backwardness as well as economic deprivation.