Supreme Court refuses to stay 10% quota bill

January 25: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant an interim stay on the operation of The Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019. However, the apex court issued a notice to the Central government on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 10% reservation to economically weaker upper castes. The apex court has granted the Centre three weeks to respond to the notice.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna was hearing a plea filed by NGO Youth for Equality, who stated that the amendment violates the basic structure of the Constitution. The petition  also stated that the amendment breaches the 50% cap set by Supreme Court. The plea added that the amendment is also unsustainable as it imposes reservation in private unaided educational institutions, which is also against previous judgements made by the Supreme Court.

At present, reservations account for a total of 49.5%, with 15%, 7.5% and 27% quotas for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) respectively. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cleared the Bill on January 8 and 9 respectively and it has also been signed by President Ram Nath Kovind.