Inadequate response: on income criteria to identify EWS quota

submit by Government appointed committee in Supreme Court whether an annual family income of ₹8 lakh is a “reasonable” limit for determining whether someone belongs to economically weaker section No water is used to take advantage of 10% reservation in admission and jobs. The submission rejected the notion that The government had “mechanically” adopted ₹8 lakh as the cut-off because it was used to identify the OBC creamy layer, claiming that the income criterion was “more stringent” for the OBC creamy layer. This justification, based on some other criteria which exclude certain income and occupational parameters from OBC creamy layer, however, is not convincing as the main question of the Court remained unanswered satisfactorily. The Court had observed that the OBC category is socially and educationally backward, and hence there were additional hurdles to overcome, and asked whether it would be arbitrary to provide the same income ceiling for both OBC and EWS categories. The presentation does not adequately answer this question. When asked whether all differences in purchasing power in urban/rural areas and per capita income/GDP across states were considered to arrive at this number, the presentation suggests that this exercise would be feasible and complex. But stating that the annual family income criterion of ₹8 lakh is the correct approach, the committee does not present any data on the estimated number of EWS persons in the population based on this.

If available consumer expenditure surveys such as the 2011-12 NSSO report, key indicators of household consumer expenditure are any indication, a large segment of the population would be eligible for reservation under the EWS category under the “below ₹8 lakh” cut-off, Making the limit irrational. The committee claims that ₹8 lakh corresponds to the “effective income tax exemption limit”, even though the only income slab exempted from paying taxes was for those earning less than ₹2.5 lakh, it was also for those “being financially weak”. presents the criteria for ” as less stringent. The submission emphasizes the fact that the results of the recent entrance and recruitment examinations (NEET, UPSC, JEE) have shown a significant proportion of qualified candidates in various income groups (0-₹2.5 Lakh, ₹2.5-₹5 Lakh, ₹5). group is shown. -₹8 lakh), but this does not explain why the cut-off marks in recruitment examinations were even lower in comparison to socially and educationally backward OBCs. The validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, through which the EWS quota was introduced in 2019, in any case, still rests with a Constitution Bench. But the top court should seek more clarity on the criteria adopted by the government committee to determine the income limit for identifying EWS categories eligible for reservation.