The Central Government has submitted an affidavit in Supreme Court regarding the EWS reservation criteria. It has decided to accept the recommendations made by an expert committee to retain the limit of Rs 8 lakhs gross annual income for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and also omit the residential asset criteria.
This move comes after the Supreme Court expressed doubts regarding the rationality of Rs 8 lakhs income criteria for EWS, following which the Centre agreed to revisit the same by formulating an expert committee. A writ petition was filed challenging the Centre’s decision to introduce EWS/OBC reservation in the All-India Quota for NEET. The SC had observed that applying the income limit criteria (Rs 8 lakhs p.a.) of OBC Creamy lawyer to EWS was inordinate, as the latter had no concept of social and economic backwardness. The Centre also put on hold the NEET-PG counselling process in view of the case pending before the Supreme Court.
EWS Reservation Quota
The EWS Quota was introduced by the Modi Government in 2019 following which, a 10 per cent reservation quota for members of the general category Economically Weaker Sections is to be provided in public sector educational institutions and jobs. It was enacted to promote the welfare of the poor not covered by the 50% reservation policy for SCs, STs, and OBCs.
Expert Committee for Revisiting the Criteria of the EWS REservation
The Central Government formed a committee for revisiting the criteria of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation on November 30, 2021, comprising Shri Ajay Bhusan Pandey – Former Finance Secretary, GOI, Prof VK Malhotra – Member Secretary, ICSSR, Shri Sanjeev Sanyal- Principal Economic Advisor to GOI. The committee was to examine various approaches so far followed in the country for identifying EWS and recommend criteria that may be adopted for identifying EWS category.
Committee recommendations
The committee summarized the recommendations in 3 points:
(i) The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of Rs. 8.00 lakh or less may be retained. The definition of ‘family’ and income would remain same as those in the Office Memorandum dated 17th January 2019.
(ii) EWS may, however exclude, irrespective of income, a person whose family has 5 acres of agricultural land and above.
(iii) The residential asset criteria may altogether be removed.
“The Committee found that though the specific number of Rs 8 lakhs appears to be the same as the OBC creamy layer cut-off, the application of the cut-off is very different in EWS and OBC as the two have different contexts. The income criterion for the EWS is much more stringent than the one for the OBC creamy layer”, the report said.
Regarding the residential asset criteria, it opined that the use of residential plot size and house floor area as an asset criterion for identification of EWS, was complex and recognized that it was not easy to specify a general residential area threshold for the entire country. The Committee has recommended introducing the new criteria from the next academic year.
NEET-PG counselling and doctors protests
It may be noted that resident doctors countrywide had launched protests across the country recently against the delay in NEET-PG counselling as the Centre had put on hold the NEET-PG counselling process in view of the case pending before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on January 6.
