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General studies 2
- Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
- Parliament and State Legislatures, structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these
In News: The BJP-led government has tabled a constitutional amendment bill to provide 10 per cent reservation in jobs and higher education to economically backward sections among the upper castes – ‘the economically weaker sections of citizens have largely remained excluded from attending the higher educational institutions and public employment on account of their financial incapacity to compete with the persons who are economically more privileged’.
The Union Cabinet has approved the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill. Now that it has been passed in the Lower House, the Bill will be moved in the Rajya Sabha.
The government move comes in the backdrop of an upper caste backlash against the Modi government’s decision against the Supreme Court’s attempt at ring-fencing apprehensions of misuse of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The Supreme Court move had sparked nation-wide protests from Dalit groups across the country after which the government brought a legislation in the last monsoon session to nullify the SC order.
Why: The Bill needs to be passed by a special majority of two-thirds of members present in each House, not less than half the strength in both. Following this, it will have to be ratified by at least half of the state legislatures. It will also have to face legal challenges if any.
The Constitution 124th Amendment Bill
The bill has to be a constitutional amendment as it overshoots the Supreme Court's 50% cap on quotas and takes the total to 60%. Any increase from that limit will be subject to judicial scrutiny.
Amended two fundamental rights:
The amendment provides for the advancement of the “economically weaker sections” of the society.
It also makes a note of the Article 46, which asks the government to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society.
Moreover, it provides reservation for:
Legal scrutiny of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has ruled multiple times against exceeding its 1992 formula of a maximum of 50 per cent reservation.
In the early 1990s, an effort by the Narasimha Rao government to provide 10 per cent reservation to poor or economically backward among other sections to offset the political backlash against the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations was nullified by the Supreme Court.
In 1992, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney judgment upheld the principle that social and educational backwardness rather than economic deprivation was the constitutional criteria for reservations. Striking down quotas for poor among the upper castes, the verdict noted that, “a backward class cannot be determined only and exclusively with reference to economic criterion. It may be a consideration or basis along with and in addition to social backwardness, but it can never be the sole criterion...”
The principle behind affirmative action was to give castes that had been denied access to education the opportunity to have, in Ambedkar’s words, a “look in” into administration and power structures of the state. Economically weaker individuals belonging to the upper castes never faced such scripturally mandated exclusion and discrimination.
Can the 50% limit be breached?
The 50% limit has been breached by the state of Tamil Nadu as well and the Supreme Court is yet to decide the validity of the state’s law breaching the 50% limit on reservations. Although the reservations in that law were purely on the basis of social and educational backwardness, nonetheless any challenge to the constitutionality of the proposed amendment will require the court, willy-nilly to decide the validity of all attempts to go past the 50% limit.
Criticisms
As civil services aspirants, we must understand and be clear with our viewpoints –
Connecting the Dots: