10% EWS quota does not violate Constitution: Guj govt to HC

The Gujarat government today filed an affidavit in the state high court saying that the ordinance providing 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS) of unreserved category neither violates provisions of the Constitution nor does it go against the Supreme Court orders.
The affidavit said the reservation was necessitated as youths from economically weaker families of unreserved category were disappointed for not being provided enough opportunity.
The government filed its affidavit before a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi in response to a series of PILs challenging the ordinance.
Additional Secretary of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Kaluji Vanzara, said in the affidavit that Article 46 of the Constitution provides that the state shall promote education and economic interests of the weaker sections of society and the ordinance was meant for the same.

"State is enjoined to reach out to more deserving people...And cannot blind itself to the existence of other instances of weakness including economic weakness...Weaker section has no limitation inasmuch as they can be from any class or as individuals," it said.
It stated that the Supreme Court's order providing 50 per cent ceiling for reservation as per the Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case as referred by the petitioners, is not being violated.
"The ordinance provides for classification among open category to the extent of 10 per cent, which is not reservation as per Articles 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the Constitution, meant for SC, ST and BC categories.

"The ordinance should be read with Article 46 of the Constitution (which states that social justice is required for weaker sections of societies) and not with reference to Backward Class quota," the affidavit said.