New Delhi, Nov 23.
The first plea, seeking a review of a recent ruling which upheld up to 10 per cent quotas for the upper caste poor, was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The plea has been filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur.
The review always goes to the same bench. It will now go before the other four judges of that bench. Former CJI U.U. Lalit who headed the bench has since retired.
The Constitution bench had in a 3:2 ruling upheld the validity of the Constitution 124th amendment. The two dissenting judges had said that the law was flawed as it ignored the poorest of the poor who belonged to the lower castes.
The law had kept out the STs, SCs and the OBCs out of its purview. The majority, however, held that such a law was valid. The law enables state governments to enact laws in their own states providing for a maximum of 10 per cent for the upper caste poor.
Though the law nowhere mentions upper caste, since it excludes SCs, STs and OBCs, i.e., “the economically weaker sections of the people who are not covered by any of the existing schemes of reservation”, it is in effect an upper caste quota.
Their percentage is estimated to be around 25 per cent of the population. The review plea claims that the percentage quota is more than the population of upper castes. It places their population at a mere 6 per cent.
Changes were made in the Constitution to include Articles 15 (6) and 16 (6) so as to reserve up 10% cent quota in educational institutions and government jobs for the economically weaker sections currently not covered under reservation.
An annual family income limit of Rs 8 lakh was set for this. This is the limit for SCs, STs and OBCs being treated as creamy layer so that they can be kept out of the ambit of admission and job quotas.
This has been a sore point of those who have pointed out the anomaly of keeping out the poorest of the poor from a quota for the poor. That included CJI U.U. Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhatt.
