Reservation Quota

The Karnataka government on Friday announced its decision to abolish the four per cent quota for religious minorities' and add it to the existing quota of two dominant communities of the poll-bound state. The four per cent reservation will now be divided into two equal parts and added to the existing quota for the Vokkaligas and Lingayats for whom two new reservation categories of 2C and 2D were created during the Belagavi Assembly Session last year. The cabinet decided to bring the religious minorities under the EWS category. The decision comes ahead of the assembly elections. Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the religious minorities quota would be done away with and brought under the 10 percent pool of the EWS group without any change of condition. The four per cent (reservation for minorities) will be divided into two between 2C and 2D. The four per cent reservation for the Vokkaligas and others will enhance to six per cent and

The SC/ST Reservation Ordinance Replacement Bill is one among a set of Bills to be introduced in a session of the State Legislature to be held at the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi from tomorrow, said CM

Society cannot develop unless women are given respect, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar said on Sunday, as he demanded 50 per cent reservation for women in every field including politics and education. Addressing a women's rights rally organised by his party here, Rajbhar said as more women enter state assemblies and Parliament, they will make laws for safeguarding their rights. "People should understand that women comprise 50 per cent of the population, so they should get 50 per cent share," the former Uttar Pradesh minister said. "The Election Commission and the government should enact a law to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. If women reach Vidhan Sabhas and Parliament, they will make laws for their rights," he said. Rajbhar also demanded that 50 per cent seats be reserved for girls in educational institutions and they should be provided free education. "Society cannot develop unless women are respected. It has be

India's first transgender Judge Joyita Mondal has underlined the need for reservation in government jobs for her community members, saying their entry in segments like the police force and the Railways will change society's outlook towards them and help in their advancement in life. Mondal said her community also needs shelter homes in adequate numbers in the country and the government should launch a scheme in this regard. "It is very important to give reservation in government jobs to the transgender community. If I don't have a job, who is going to feed me?" Mondal told reporters on Friday after attending a culture and literature festival, "Lit Chowk", here. She said if by virtue of reservation, transgender persons join the police force and the Railways, it will not only help community members march ahead in life, but change society's outlook towards them. She said authorities should be more sensitive towards her community members and issues faced by them. Mondal was appointed

India's first transgender Judge Joyita Mondal on Friday underlined the need for reservation in government jobs for her community members, saying their entry in segments like the police force and the Railways will change society's outlook towards them and help in their advancement in life. Mondal said her community also needs shelter homes in adequate numbers in the country and the government should launch a scheme in this regard. It is very important to give reservation in government jobs to the transgender community. If I don't have a job, who is going to feed me? Mondal told reporters after attending a culture and literature festival, "Lit Chowk", here. She said if by virtue of reservation, transgender persons join the police force and the Railways, it will not only help community members march ahead in life, but change society's outlook towards them. She said authorities should be more sensitive towards her community members and issues faced by them. Mondal was appointed a ...

The Chhattisgarh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed two amendment bills related to reservation in government jobs and admission in educational institutions in proportion to population of different categories, taking the total quota in the state to 76 per cent. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tabled the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Bill and Chhattisgarh Educational Institutions (Reservation in admission) Amendment Bill, which were passed after a debate of more than five hours. As per the bills, Scheduled Tribes will get quota of 32 per cent, Other Backward Classes 27 per cent, Scheduled Caste 13 per cent, while 4 per cent has been provisioned for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in public employment and admissions in educational institutions. Answering the discussion on the bills, Baghel said the previous BJP governments could not form a Quantifiable Data Commission, which was constituted by his ...

CM Pushkar Singh Dhami introduced a bill in the state legislative assembly to provide 30 per cent horizontal reservation to the women of Uttarakhand state in state-owned services

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today:

An all Legislative party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday said it "rejected" the 103rd Constitutional Amendment providing 10 per cent EWS quota by the Centre, saying it created "caste-discrimination" among the poor. The meeting, boycotted by Principal opposition AIADMK and its ally BJP, urged the state government to "strongly" register its opinions when a review petition is filed. The ruling DMK has already announced it will file a review petition against the November 8 five-judge Supreme Court bench upholding the 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). The quota was upheld 3-2 by the bench. "We reject the 103rd Constitutional Amendment providing 10 per cent reservation to castes that have progressed since it is against the social justice envisioned by the Constitution, against various Apex court verdicts, and for creating caste discrimination among the poor," the all-party meeting resolved on Saturday. "When a review

Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela M. Trivedi, and J.B. Pardiwala upheld the validity of the EWS quota

There cannot be any "cut-and-dried formula" or "theorem" that gives an answer whether a Constitution amendment violates the basic structure, Supreme Court judge Justice Dinesh Maheswari said while upholding the EWS quota. The top court in a 3:2 majority decision upheld the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs that excluded the poor among the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) categories. Justice Maheswari, who along with justices Bela M Trivedi and J B Pardiwala upheld the 103rd Constitution amendment, said, "It is beyond doubt that using the doctrine of basic structure as a sword against the amendment in question and thereby to stultify the State's effort to do economic justice as ordained by the Preamble and DPSP and, inter alia, enshrined in Articles 38, 39 and 46, cannot be countenanced." Achieving "social, economic and political justice" is the real and substantive equality,

Reservation is an instrument of affirmative action to ensure an all-inclusive march toward the goals of an egalitarian society, the verdict says

It is unclear how far the state can fulfil its obligations to EWS families when more jobs are created in the private sector

The reservation quota for the Pahadi community "will not affect the reservation for Gujjar and Bakerwal community under the Scheduled Tribes category," Amit Shah said

The Chhattisgarh High Court on Monday set aside the state government's 2012 decision to raise the quota to 58 per cent in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions and held the reservation exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling is unconstitutional. The division bench of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice P P Sahu delivered the verdict on petitions challenging the state government's decision to amend the reservation rules in 2012 when the BJP was in power, said Mateen Siddiqui, the counsel for one of the petitioners. According to the 2012 amendment, the quota for Scheduled Castes was slashed by 4 per cent to 12 per cent, while reservation for Scheduled Tribes was increased by 12 per cent from 20% to 32%. The OBC reservation was kept unchanged at 14 per cent, he said. After the amendment, the cumulative reservation in the state went up to 58 per cent breaching the 50 per cent ceiling limit, he said. In the same year, Guru Ghasidas Sahitya Samiti and other ...

Understanding the EWS quota

Validity of the 10% quota for people belonging to economically weaker sections is under scrutiny now. The case is being heard by the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India. Here's more

The 103rd amendment act provided a 10 per cent quota in educational institutes and government jobs to economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society

Dr. G Mohan Gopal said the EWS reservation was an attack on the constitutional vision of social justice

A Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, and JB Pardiwala said this on Thursday

The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed three broad issues for adjudication arising from the pleas challenging the Centre's decision to grant 10 per cent reservation to EWS in admissions and jobs. It will also decide whether the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act breached the doctrine of the basic structure of the Constitution by allowing the state to make such special provisions. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said the three issues suggested by Attorney General K K Venugopal for the decision "broadly" covered all the aspects relating to the petitions on the constitutional validity of the decision to grant the reservation. "Whether the 103rd Constitution amendment Act can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria," read the first issue framed. The second legal question was whether the constitutional amendment cou