Chaini Parwani –
Published on: November 29, 2021 at 14: IST
The Centre submitted that it will review the eligibility income ceiling of Rs 8 lakh for the
Economically Weaker Sections Quota.
It was highlighted that the Supreme Court had questioned as to how could the income ceiling for Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation and the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota be the same at Rs 8 lakh.
Further it came into light that the Rs 8 lakh ceiling for OBC and EWS is different the one for EWS is more rigid including income from all sources including ‘Salary’, while the income ceiling for OBC does not include ‘Salary’ and ‘Agricultural Income’.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court interrogated the Government about the uniformity between the OBC and EWS, and asked if there was any scrutiny done and data collected to determine Rs 8 lakh for the EWS.
The Centre’s main concern was that drawbacks on the sensitive issue of procedure adopted to arrive at the figure could lead to the entire EWS policy being scrapped or put on hold.
It was further highlighted that this fear was apparently the reason why the Government did not argue that Rs 8 lakh in case of EWS and OBC were different in the sense of how they were calculated, and did not amount to uniformity between two groups that the Court suggested.
The Government has decided to form a panel to examine the income ceiling for the EWS, and derive a decision.