Pinnacle Court changes the combination of Bench regarding EWS quota case
As per the latest information, the list of cases for today shows that a two-judge bench of Justices Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna will hear the matter. But earlier on Tuesday, the court had published that a three-judge special bench of Justices Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Bopanna would hear the case.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had agreed to accommodate various combinations of Supreme Court benches scheduled for the week to accommodate the matter
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Central government was requesting the Supreme Court for an early hearing of the matter that was already listed for hearing on January 6; After the Solicitor General's repeated mention before the court on January 3 and January 4, the court agreed to hear the matter on January 5
Mr. Mehta had underlined that the NEET counseling was suspended from November-end due to questions raised about the criteria in the EWS quota. Medical admission is delayed, and this issue has to be resolved quickly
The Pinnacle court’s interrogative approach was important because the one hundred and third constitutional amendment of 2019, which introduced the 10% EWS quota, is itself under challenge before a larger bench. The amendment to make economic criteria the sole basis for providing reservation benefits is under question.
The Union government had formed a review committee comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former Finance Secretary; Professor V.K. Malhotra, Member Secretary, ICSSR; and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India. The panel submitted a report on December 31, supporting the ₹8 lakh income threshold as a “reasonable” basis to determine EWS.
The report stated that “The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of ₹8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words, only those families whose annual income is up to ₹8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation”.
The committee has maintained that the ₹8 lakh criterion struck a “fine balance” between overinclusion and inclusion errors.
The case is challenging the Union’s INR 8 lakh annual income criteria for determining the EWS category and for providing 10% EWS reservation in medical admissions. The Centre has decided to retain this criterion for the ongoing admissions and revised criteria recommended by the expert committee can be adopted from next year.
Finally, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Chandrachud is still hearing the EWS case. Whatever, this week the court of Justice Chandrachud is sitting in a combination of two judges.
