Aastha Thakur
Published on July 27, 2022 at 21:59 IST
In significant development, the Supreme Court stated to hear the plea against the 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota on 2 August, 2022.
The apex court had asked the Union Government to explain why the criteria for the EWS category were set at the same margin as the creamy layer of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, at an annual family income of not more than Rs 8 lakh.
The plea was filed by a NEET PG aspirants last year, challenging the EWS reservation in the All India Quota (AIQ) for the NEET PG counselling. It was submitted that the move is disadvantageous to “meritorious” students. It has been nearly a year, and the case is still pending before the court.
The Centre for re-evaluation of the criteria provisions had formed a three-member committee, which included Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former Finance Secretary, VK Malhotra, Member Secretary, ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to the Centre.
The report furbished by committee recommends that the current limit of family income of Rs 8 lakh to qualify as avail the EWS reservation benefit be retained, calling it “reasonable for the purpose”.
On the last hearing date in January 2022, the top court upheld the constitutional validity of the reservation for the OBC and EWS categories in the NEET PG counselling and gave the go-ahead for the counselling to begin. However, no final decision if the Court is still awaited.