It Appears EWS Committee Tries To Justify Rs 8 Lakh Limit Post-Facto : Supreme Court In NEET-PG Counselling Case

While hearing the cases related to NEET-PG Counselling, the Supreme Court on Thursday orally remarked that the Expert Committee constituted by the Central Governemnt has attempted to provide a post-facto justification to the Rupees 8 lakh gross annual income limit for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) quota.A bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna was referring to the report made by the Expert Committee headed by former Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, which recommended the retention of the existing EWS criteria for the ongoing admissions. The Committee was constituted by the Centre to revisit the EWS criteria after the Court expressed doubts regarding its reasonableness. "It appears what the Committee has sought to do is offer a justification for the 8 lakh criterion. They have tried to justify the 8 lakh cut-off post facto", remarked Justice D. Y. Chandrachud.Earlier, Senior Advocate Arvind P Datar, appearing for the petitioners, had argued that the EWS criteria were fixed without conducting any proper study and the criteria for OBC-creamy layer was mechanically applied to EWS.Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta refuted these arguments and asserted that the criteria as per the Office Memorandum of January 2019 were arrived at after due deliberations."There was a study (before the January, 2019 OM), there was application of the mind, there were consultations between the government. It was only because of your lordships' indulgence that the study which this committee undertook was undertaken. Otherwise, it was not an unstudied position. The Office memorandum was after due deliberation in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and all concerned stakeholders. Even before the OM of 17 January 2019 was in existence, in the context of identification of economically backward classes, the government had set up the SINHO committee in 2007...", he had submitted.At this, Justice Chandrachud had asked, "The constitutional amendment for EWS came into force on 14 January 2019. You say that the OM issued on 17 January was in consultation with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment? In two days, there was consultation with the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment?""The SINHO Commission was from 2010...", the SG said.Justice Chandrachud interjected, "But before the 103rd amendment, there was no question of consulting the Ministry of Social Justice on the issue of reservation in medical colleges. The whole process of consultation was complete in three days and everything was done?"The Solicitor General took the bench through the methodology adopted by the Committee. He highlighted the exercise was not to find out who was "poor" but who belonged to "economically weaker sections". SG explains the Committee's methodologyIt had been the SG's submission that considering the socio-economic structure in which the country lives, even the person who is from the low-income group or EWS may also have some kind of little savings. "We don't have the concept of social security etc, but even while framing the income tax regulations, the government tries to be inclusive and expects even those categories to be poor who can save something. The current tax exemption limit is 2.5 lakhs. In 2019, the government amends the Finace ACt with the result that everyone having taxable income up to 5 lakhs was exempted from paying income tax. Whatever tax was calculated for income exceeding 2.5 lakhs was given back to the taxpayer by way of rebate, which effectively meant that individuals having taxable income up to 5 lakhs had their entire income tax free. As a result, even persons having larger gross incomes are not required to pay any tax and can make investment in provident fund, insurance, etc. There being Deduction of interest on home loan, interest on educational loan, national pension scheme contributions, medical insurance, medical expenditure on senior citizens etc, persons having higher income do not have to pay tax. In addition, salaried persons get an additional standard deduction of Rs.50,000. Income from capital gain on listed shares is exempt from tax. So effectively, if a person is earning up to 8 lakhs, he will not be required to pay any tax for the financial year 2019-2020 onwards, provided he makes some specified savings etc", he had advanced."The committee says that even if you have some room to make savings, you may be EWS. There are some few thousand crores deposited in Jan Dhan accounts etc, with minimum savings of 1500, 700, because we don't have social security like other rich countries. So even persons of economically weaker sections do invest somewhere. They have a minimum kind of insurance, minimum medical insurance etc", he had sought to submit.Justice Chandrachud then asked : "Is a person who is EWS likely to have capital gains on listed shares of up to 1 lakh? Besides, if you take eight lakhs also, and you get capital gains of 1 lakh ...

It Appears EWS Committee Tries To Justify Rs 8 Lakh Limit Post-Facto : Supreme Court In NEET-PG Counselling Case

Mehal Jain

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