NEET-AIQ : Supreme Court Questions Rs 8 Lakh Criteria For EWS; Asks How Can It Be Applied Uniformly Across Country

The Supreme Court on Thursday put several serious questions to the Union Government regarding its decision to adopt the criteria of annual income of Rupees 8 lakhs to determine Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) for the purpose of reservation in the All India Quota for seats under the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test(NEET).Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the decision of the Union Government to introduce 10% EWS and 27% OBC reservation in NEET-AIQ, a bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and BV Nagarathna asked the Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj regarding the studies and deliberations undertaken for fixing this criteria.The ASG submitted that the income criteria for EWS was a "matter of policy". Explaining the basis for the decision, the ASG submitted that the decision was based on the national cost of living.The ASG mentioned that the same criteria of 8 lakhs is there for determining creamy lawyer under the Other Backward Classes(OBC) quota. "In 2015 it was 6.5 lakhs for creamy layer, in 2017 it was increased to 8 lakhs for creamy layer", the ASG submitted.How can criteria for creamy layer be applied for EWS?On hearing the ASG's submissions, the bench wondered if the criteria for creamy layer has been mechanically lifted and applied for EWS as well. The bench pointed out that there is no concept of social backwardness for EWS category, and hence the creamy layer criteria for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes may not automatically fit the former. "As far as EWS is concerned, there is no social or educational backwardness. So can you apply the same yardstick of 8 lakh limit for creamy layer to the EWS? In the case of EWS, we are not dealing with social and educational backwardness. So have you lifted the criteria for creamy layer mechanically for EWS? And have you considered only income or income and assets?", Justice Chandrachud asked."Mr. Nataraj, you better reflect on these. On what is the indicia for EWS? And what exercise has been done for arriving at this by the Govt of India? You cannot apply the same indicia as you apply for the SEBC. See because in the case of creamy layer, the concept of creamy layer is that by reason of economic advancement, indicia of backwardness is completely obliterated. But in the case of EWS, there is no concept of obliteration of social backwardness. We are not looking at social backwardness at all", Justice Chandrachud continued.How can uniform criteria apply across the country?The bench also asked how a uniform criteria can be made applicable across the country, without taking into account the huge disparities in per incapita income in different states."Mr. Nataraj, I will tell you a fable. Not a fable, a real happening. When we recommend lawyers as judges, there is an income criteria. For example, income criteria of "X". But for a person in Allahabad, "X" will be a huge income. It might be different in Mumbai. The scale of pay, living cost etc are different. In one place you may have corporate clients paying", Justice Chandrachud cited an example."The reason we say is that, the explanation to Article 15(6) says the the states will define the income criteria. There is a reason behind this. For example, in a hilly state with remote areas, income of 3 lakhs might be the economically weaker section. It may not be the economically weaker section in any other developed state . Even within a state, there will be different parameters. For example, in Maharashtra, different parameters will be there for Gadchiroli and Mumbai. For UP, different parameters will be there for Ghaziabad, or Eastern UP or Behraich or for any other interior districts", Justice Chandrachud further remarked.The judge pointed out that even for House Rent Allowance(HRA), there was the concept of Class-1, Class-2 cities."What is this exercise ? How can you say 8 lakhs everywhere for the country?Who carried out the study? What were the contemporaneous studies which the government relied?", the judge further sought to know."You can't say it is a matter of policy. For EWS quota, there is a constitution amendment. But what about this income criteria, who deliberated?", Justice Chandrachud further commented.The ASG at this point said that these are larger issues which are pending before the larger bench. However, Justice Chandrachud said that the larger bench was examining the validity of the 103rd Constitution Amendment(which introduced provisions for EWS), and the present bench was concerned with the implementation of the amendment.The ASG pointed out that it was the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Department of the Personnel and Training need to reply to these aspects. Since these Ministries/Departments have not been added as respondents in the case, the ASG said that he was not in a position to give a ready answer.He sought for time to get instructions from the concerned Ministries to file an affidavit.Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, who...

NEET-AIQ : Supreme Court Questions Rs 8 Lakh Criteria For EWS; Asks How Can It Be Applied Uniformly Across Country

Shruti Kakkar

The Court also asked how can the same criteria for creamy layer be applied to determine EWS, which has no concept of social backwardness

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