Supreme Court Constitution Bench To Start Hearing Cases Challenging Validity Of EWS Quota & Muslim SEBC Reservation From September 13

The Supreme Court Constituiton Bench will start hearing in the cases challenging the constitutional validity of reservation for Economically Weaker Sections and the reservation given for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh as a Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) on September 13 and 14.

A 5-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, JB Pardiwala decided on Tuesday to list these matters next Tuesday -September 6- to set the time line for hearing and completion of other pre-hearing steps. The bench said that the hearing in the matters will commence from September 13.

The case related to Muslim SEBC reservation is a 2005 civil appeal which raises the issue whether Muslims, as a community, can be declared socially and educationally backward for the purposes of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. (Case No. C.A. No.7513/2005).

The other case relates to the validity of the Constitution 103rd Amendment Act 2019 which introduced provision for reservation to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) (WP(c) No.55/2019).

The bench agreed to take up these matters as the issues are overlapping. The bench will take up the EWS matter first, followed by the case relating to Muslim SEBC quota.

The bench appointed four lawyers - Shadan Farasat, Nachiketa Joshi, Mahfooz Nazki and Kanu Agarwal- as nodal counsel who should see to that common compilations in both the cases are filed. The compilations should include all the documents, statutory instruments, case laws and other materials which the lawyers wish to rely upon.

The 5-judge bench had listed four matters today for pre-hearing directions. Apart from the above two, the other cases are :

1. Minority reservation for Sikhs in Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) institutions (SLP (C) No.2755/2008)

2. Petitions seeking reliefs for division of Supreme Court into appellate and Constitutional divisions with regional benches for the former(W.P.(C)No.36/2016).

The bench decided to take up the reservation related cases first as the issues are overlapping.