Congress leader Jaya Thakur from Madya Pradesh today, November 23, has filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the verdict upholding 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in admissions and government jobs. Thakur has sought that the verdict be reviewed, as per a report by PTI.

It was on November 7 that the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, had upheld the 103rd amendment to the Constitution which provided 10 per cent reservation for the EWS in universities and government jobs. A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by former CJI UU Lalit, had delivered the judgement on a 3:2 majority basis.

The CJI and Justice Ravindra Bhat had a dissenting view opposing the reservation. They had stated that it undermined the basic structure of the constitution. However, during the hearing, Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had countered that the reservation did not affect the structure of the constitution and did not breach the 50 per cent cap. Thus, they had defended the 103rd amendment.

The other three justices concurred with the Attorney General's statement. The Bench had then said that the use of the basic structure doctrine as a "sword" to "stultify" the State's effort to do economic justice cannot be countenanced, as per PTI.