The 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act

#GS-02 Social Justice

About the 103rd Constitutional Amendment:

The 103rd amendment act provide for 10% reservation in appointments to posts under the state and in admissions to educational institutions to “economically weaker sections of citizens [EWS]”.
The Act amends Article 15 and 16 to provide for reservation based on economic backwardness.
The 10% reservation prescribed by the Amendment Act is in addition to the existing reservation.
The 103 Constitutional Amendment Act also covers private unaided educational institutions, except the minority educational institutions.
103^rd CAA is aimed at implementing Article 46 which urges the government to protect the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of society.

To those who are not covered in existing quotas
Whose Family income below 8 lakhs a year or agricultural land below 5 acres.
Who has a house above 1,000 square feet or a 100-yard plot.
In the case of a residential plot in a non-notified municipality area, the residential plot should be below 200 yards.

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in a 3:2 majority decision, upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment.
Supreme Court held that reservation was an “instrument of affirmative action by the state” and should not be confined to the SCs, STs, SEBCs, and the non-creamy layer of the OBCs but also include “any class or sections so disadvantaged as to answer the description of ‘weaker section’”.
The Court also held that reservation on economic criterion alone did not violate the Basic Structure of the Constitution.

Exclusion of those who are already beneficiaries of reservation is concerning since;
SCs make up 38% of the population, STs 48.4%, and OBCs 13.86% of the 31.7 crore people living below the poverty line.