124th Amendment Bill provides 10% reservation for Weaker sections of General category

The laws on reservation nearly three decades after the
Mandal Commission recommendations came into force

• Both the houses of parliament have passed the 124th Constitutional amendment bill that will provide 10% reservation for weaker sections of the general category for jobs and educational institutions.
•  There was a 10 hours hot debates in Lok sabha before the bill was sent to Rajya sabha to be passed. On 9th January, 2018, the Rajya Sabha passed the bill after a hour long discussion. The Rajya Sabha voted 165-7 in favour of the Bill as it is a constitutional amendment bill that should avail equal power support from both the houses of the parliament. The Bill, cleared by both Houses, will now go to the President for his assent before it becomes an Act of Parliament.
• People who have an annual income less than 8 lakh, own less than 5 acre farm land, have house smaller than 1,000 sq feet in a town or a 100 sq yard house in notified municipal area would qualify for the proposed quotas.
•  The 10 per cent quota covers nearly 190 million people from the general category. It is seen as an effort to reach out to upper caste groups and once-dominant agrarian communities.

124th Amendment on Article-15 and 16 of the Constitution

•  The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the 124th Amendment Bill states that people from economically weaker sections of the society have largely remained excluded from attending the higher educational institutions and public employment on account of their financial incapacity to compete with the persons who are economically more privileged.
•  Article 15 is amended to provide reservations to economically weaker sections for admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30. This reservation is capped at ten per cent.
• The amendment also adds a clause that allows the states to make “special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of citizens”.
• Article 16 is amended to provide reservations to people from economically weaker sections in government posts. As of now, it is not certain as to who can qualify as a person belonging to “economically weaker sections”.
•  It also makes it clear that reservation would be “in addition to the existing reservations and subject to a maximum of ten per cent of the total seats in each category”.

Bias on Minorities Institutions under the preview of 124th Amendment Bill

• Article – 30 – Clause 1 says: All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
•  A verdict delivered by a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in PA Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra states that
  “The State cannot insist on private educational institutions which receive no aid from the State to implement State’s policy on reservation for granting admission on lesser percentage of marks, i.e. on any criterion except merit.”
  Either the government will make a set of special provisions in this regard to frame regulations or the Supreme Court will interpret in such a way to clarify this bias