Supreme Court sets aside Madras High Court remarks on EWS quota

What is the News?

The Supreme Court has set aside the observations in the Madras High Court’s order, which said that the reservation for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) in the NEET-All India Quota can be implemented only with the approval of the Supreme Court.

Background

Recently, the Government of India had announced a 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in All India Quota (AIQ) scheme for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical/dental courses from 2021-22 onwards.

After this, a petition was filed in the Madras High Court challenging the 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) scheme.

On this, the High Court said that the reservation for EWS in the NEET-All India Quota can be implemented by the Central Government only with the approval of the Supreme Court.

This is because the 10% EWS quota introduced under the 103rd Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 is being examined by a Constitution Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court.

After these observations, the Central Government moved the Supreme Court saying that it was unnecessary for the High Court to make such remarks.

What did the Supreme Court say on this?

The Supreme Court has set aside the Madras High Court observation that the Centre should not have provided a 10% reservation for EWS society in the all India quota medical seats without obtaining the express approval of the Supreme Court.

The apex court said that the Madras High Court observations were outside its jurisdiction. However, the court refrained from making any comment about the merits of the EWS quota issue.

Source: This post is based on the article ”Supreme Court sets aside Madras High Court remarks on EWS quota” published in The Hindu on 25th September 2021.