The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the validity of the 103rd Amendment to the Constitution - 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections. A five-judge bench - led by retiring Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit - delivered individual judgements and finally ruled 3-2 in favour of the quota law.
Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala delivered 'for' verdicts and Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Ravindra S Bhat dissented.
What the bench said:
Reservation is an instrument of affirmative action offered by the State to ensure an all-inclusive approach. It is not meant only for inclusion of socially and educationally backward classes and reservation based singularly on economic criteria does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution - Justice Maheshwari
103rd Amendment cannot be struck down as being discriminatory. The impugned amendment has to be treated as an affirmative action by Parliament for the benefit of EWS . It cannot be said to be unreasonable classification... treating unequals equally violates equality under the Constitution - Justice Trivedi
I uphold the EWS amendment (but) reservation is not an end, it is means, it should not be allowed to become a vested interest - Justice Pardiwala
Reservation on economic criteria is per se not violative... (but) by excluding poor among SC/ST/OBC from economically backward classes, the amendment practices constitutionally prohibited forms of discrimination. The exclusion neglects this principle and strikes the heart of the equality code - Justice Bhat
I have concurred with the view taken by Justice Bhat in its entirety - CJI Lalit
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