No proposal to alter existing reservation scheme: Government

There is no proposal to alter the existing reservation scheme, the government said on Wednesday, a month after the Supreme Court upheld 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections in admissions and government jobs. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik said this in Lok Sabha while responding to a question about the Centre's plans on relaxing the 50 per cent ceiling limit for reservations following the SC verdict and increasing reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) beyond 27 per cent.

"There is no proposal to alter the existing reservation scheme," Bhoumik said.

In a landmark verdict on November 7, the Supreme Court upheld the 10 per cent reservation introduced in 2019 for economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs that excluded the poor among the SC/ST/OBC categories, saying it is not discriminatory or violative of any essential feature of the Constitution.

Treating EWS as a separate category is a reasonable classification and the 50 per cent ceiling on the total reservation under the Mandal judgment is "not inflexible", the court said while dismissing petitions challenging the validity of the law.