- Case Name- Janhit Abhiyan v. Union Of India with 32 connected matters [W.P.(C)NO.55/2019]
- Bench- Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela Trivedi, JB Pardiwala, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit
- Ratio- 3:2 Majority (Justice S Ravindra Bhat and CJI Uday Umesh Lalit dissenting)
- Justice Trivedi and Pardiwala made remarks regarding the need for a time-limit on reservations while being in the majority in upholding the provision of 10% reservation for the EWS
- Justice Trivedi was of the opinion that there is a need to revisit the system of reservation after 75 years of independence.
- She also said that the framers of the Constitution and the Constitutional Bench of 1985 believed that the provision of reservation would have fulfilled its purpose in the time span of 50 years.
- However, it has been 75 years of Independence and it still hasn’t been achieved.
- It was designed to give people from the SC, ST, and other backward groups a level playing field and to remedy the historical injustice they had to endure.
- However, in order to advance towards transformational constitutionalism at the end of 75 years of independence, it is necessary to review the reservation system.
- The current deadline for implementing the SC/ST quota in legislatures is 2030.
- Following the 104th Constitutional Amendment, the Anglo Indian community's presence in the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies has already ended.
- According to Justice Trivedi, if the reservations under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution for SC, ST, and OBC categories are given a comparable timeline, it will result in "an egalitarian classless and casteless society."
- In agreement with the majority opinion sustaining the EWS quota, Justice Pardiwala stated that a reservation cannot be in place indefinitely without becoming a "vested interest."
- In order to focus on the classes that actually require assistance, the classes of people who have obtained acceptable standards of education and work should be taken out of the backward classes.
- Therefore, it is necessary to assess the processes for class identification and determination.
- It's also important to check whether the standards for judging backwardness still hold true now.
- Justice Pardiwala quoted Dr. BR Ambedkar and said that the purpose of instituting reservation for just ten years was to promote social harmony. But it has persisted for more than seven decades.
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