Congress leader Jaya Thakur has filed a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict to uphold the 10% quota given to persons from Economically Weaker Sections in admissions and jobs, reported Live Law on Wednesday.

A five-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench had upheld the 10% EWS quota in a 3-2 judgement on November 7.

In 2019, the Union government had introduced the Economically Weaker Sections quota for those who cannot avail of the reservations granted to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, but have an annual family income of less than Rs 8 lakh. However, those from families that own more than five acres of agricultural land or 1,000 square feet of residential land, are not eligible for the quota.

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In her petition, Thakur submitted that even though the forward caste population is only 6% of the country’s population, 10% reservation will be given to the “poor of the forward caste” due to the EWS quota.

“The numbers clearly show that this reservation of 10% is disproportionate and there is no grounds or justification whatsoever for arriving at this figure of 6%,” she said. “The 10% reservation provided to the EWS of only forward caste, is breach of equality code amounting to discrimination.”

Thakur also argued that a Parliamentary debate had not been held when the 103rd Amendment, which paved way for the reservation, was passed. In addition, she said that the majority judgements in the case failed to explain the rationale behind giving the quota to 10% of the population.

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Noting that the OBCs, SCs and STs cannot seek the benefits of the reservation, she argued that it violated Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment) of the Constitution.

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