EWS Quota Arbitrary As It Excludes Poor On The Ground Of Caste; Only Benefits The Privileged : Ravi Verma Kumar To Supreme Court [Day 2]

The Supreme Court Constitution Bench, on Wednesday, continued hearings on the cases challenging the constitutional validity of reservation for Economically Weaker Sections. In the last hearing, submissions were made by Dr. Mohan Gopal, Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora and Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh. A detailed report of the submissions can be found here and here. Today's pleadings were commenced by Senior Advocate Prof. Ravi Verma Kumar, who, while addressing the Bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala, submitted that weaker sections had to be understood ejusdem generis Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and that economic depravity was not a ground of discrimination under the Indian Constitution. State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan: Ratio of the JudgementProf. Kumar commenced his arguments by providing a history of reservations in India, tracing it through the landmark judgement of State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan. He stated that the first reservation policy was conceived in Mysore in 1872 and in Champakam Dorairajan, the reservation policy of Mysore was challenged and struck down by Madras High Court. He quoted from the judgement–"It is argued that the petitioners are not denied admission only because they are Brahmins but for a variety of reasons, e.g., (a) they are Brahmins, (b) Brahmins have an allotment of only two seats out of 14 and (c) the two seats have already been filled up by more meritorious Brahmin candidates. This may be true so far as these two seats reserved for the Brahmins are concerned but this line of argument can have no force when we come to consider the seats reserved for candidates of other communities, for, so far as those seats are concerned, the petitioners are denied admission into any of them not on any ground other than the sole ground of their being Brahmins and not being members of the community lot whom those reservations have been made...The classification in the Communal G.O. proceeds on the basis of religion, race and caste. In our view, the classification made in the Communal G.O. is opposed to the Constitution and constitutes a clear violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizen under Article 29(2)."Prof. Kumar stated that this ratio of Champakam Dorairajan had stood the test of time and been adopted in various other judgements such as Indira Sawhney v. Union of India, M. R. Balaji v. State Of Mysore and Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India. He stated that this was a prelude to show how an unconstitutional exercise had been given a colour of authority by enacting the 103rd Constitutional Amendment. Substantive Equality under Indian Constitution Elaborating upon the right to equality as provided under the Indian Constitution, Prof. Kumar stated that Article 14 had two limbs – the doctrine of equal opportunity and; equal protection of laws. He stated that this guaranteed substantive equality to citizens, as opposed to formal equality. Prof. Kumar elucidated upon the same by stating–"First limb is to ensure equal opportunity and second one is to ensure that the country emerges as a casteless and classless, egalitarian society. These doctrines operate in different areas. Principle of equal opportunity, which should be made available to everyone– is reinforced by many provisions in the Constitution. One example is Article 15(1). It prohibits discrimination on enumerated grounds– religion, caste and sex, race, or place of birth."He highlighted that despite having a provision for equality, the Constitution of India still prohibited discrimination because the Constitution framers found that Indian society was uneven and was divided on basis of religion, sex and caste. In this context, he referred to Article 15(2) and Article 29 of the Indian Constitution. Prof Kumar then elaborated upon how Article 16(1) and 16(2) both advanced the doctrine of equal opportunity by providing public employment, which was considered a means of empowerment at that time, to backward classes. On prohibition of untouchability as under Article 17 of the Indian Constitution, he stated–"I also have had personal experience as the Chairman of Backward Classes Commission. Karnataka has 29000 villages but not a single village has any resident from Scheduled Caste. All SCs are kept out...We never fought apartheid in India. This is nothing but Apartheid. I have had occasion to study apartheid, it only means, 'living apart'. We have kept out all Dalits and SCs. Therefore, Article 17 stated this."In this context, Prof Kumar also drew the attention of the court to Article 35 and Article 372 of the Indian Constitution to show that the mandate under Article 16 was itself is a fundamental right. He then referred to Articles 23, 24 [freedom from exploitation] and stated–"Who are the persons who are exploited? Are they accommodated under EWS? Respectfully not.These are people who are classified as...

EWS Quota Arbitrary As It Excludes Poor On The Ground Of Caste; Only Benefits The Privileged : Ravi Verma Kumar To Supreme Court [Day 2]

Padmakshi Sharma

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