The Supreme Court, on Thursday, October 21, pulled up the Central Government for failing to file the affidavit it had requested on the issue of the EWS criteria in the 15 per cent All India Quota (AIQ) in the seats allotted as per the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET). The Bench has put forth a series of questions, which it says the Centre must answer. The court also said that it will consider staying the notification if the Centre doesn't offer satisfactory answers.
The Centre had set the criteria for determining Economically Weaker Sections at an annual income of Rs 8 lakh, after which students had filed petitions in the Apex Court, challenging that decision. In a hearing on October 4, the SC had raised concerns about the seemingly arbitrary nature of the process behind the Centre's decision.
The hearing on Thursday was in front of a Bench composed of Justices DY Chandrachud, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice BV Nagarathna. Additional Solicitor General (AGS), KM Nataraj, appeared for the centre. Not one to mince his words, Justice Chandrachud said, "You must have some demographic or sociological or socio-economic data. You just cannot pull out 8 lakh from thin air, you are making unequals equals."
The court clarified that it wasn't trying to interfere in what was clearly a policy matter, but said that it made little sense that the benchmark that is set for those in the higher strata of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), which is an annual income of 8 lakh, is being used to determine the EWS. Elaborating on the matter, Justice Chandrachud said that while OBCs are classified as socially and educationally backward, EWS are not said to fall under that category, according to LiveLaw.
Articles 15 and 16 under the 103rd amendment of the Constitution state that the Central Government is required to define the Economically Weaker Sections on the basis of family income and other economic indicators and, as such, the court asked the Centre to release a thorough, nationwide definition of the EWS. The ASG informed the court, after it threatened to stay the EWS notification, that the draft of the petition is ready and will be filed in two or three days.
