Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh high court on Saturday issued a notice to the central government for allegedly providing benefits under the economic weaker section (EWS) to students/aspirants of the “general category only”.
A double bench of chief justice Ravi Vijay Malimath and justice Vishal Mishra ordered the Centre to submit a response within six weeks while hearing a petition filed by an organisation – “Advocate Union for Democracy and Social Justice”.
The organisation alleged that the poor exist in all categories and castes, however, the EWS benefits are provided “only to the general category people” by the government.
The EWS policy issued by the Indian government is inconsistent with Articles 15 (6) and 16(6) of the Constitution, which have been placed before the court, said one of the advocates for the petitioner, Rameshwar Prasad Singh. “We argued that the Indian government has challenged the constitutional validity on five grounds since January 17, 2019.”
It was argued that excluding the Other Backward Classes, the Scheduled Caste, and the Schedule Tribe from the benefits of the EWS policy is against Article 14.
“Not only this, EWS reservation is a special reservation, which is unconstitutional to be applied vertically. The government’s policy discriminates against the poor on a caste basis. It was argued by the applicants that the provision of EWS reservation benefits to the poor of each category is provided in the 103rd Constitutional Amendment,” reads the petition.
After the initial hearing, the court issued a notice to the central government to present a response.
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