EWS Issue : Supreme Court To Hear Plea Challenging Validity Of Rs 8 Lakhs Annual Income Criteria In May 2022

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar requested the bench Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi to hear the matter urgently since the next NEET-PG exam is scheduled on May 23, 2022 and the results would be pronounced on May 30, 2022.

"Your lordships are sitting till lunch & it's unlikely to be taken. The only difficulty is, the exam is on May 23 & results will be announced on May 30th," submitted Senior Counsel.

Acceding to the request made by Senior Counsel, Justice Chandrachud said,"We can keep it the week after next."

It may be noted that the Top Court on January 7, 2022 had allowed the commencement of counseling process for NEET-PG and NEET-UG for 2021-22 admissions on the basis of the existing 27% quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) in the All India Quota. The Court upheld the constitutionality of 27% OBC reservation. As regards criteria to determine EWS (Rupees 8 lakhs gross annual income cut-off), the Court allowed the existing criteria to operate for the current admission year so as to not delay the admission process further.

While allowing the same, the Top Court had listed the matter with regards to the criteria determined by the Pandey committee for identifying the EWS for the future for March, 2022.

The Committee, which was formulated by the Center for revisiting the criteria of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation, had recommended the retention of the annual income criteria of Rupees 8 lakhs but recommended the exclusion of family who has agricultural land of 5 acres and above, irrespective of income. The Committee has further recommended removing the criteria with regards to residential assets. But the Committee recommended that these revisions be applied from the next academic year.

Case Title: Neil Aurelio Nunes & Ors v Union of India and Ors, Yash Tekwani and Ors v. Medical Counseling Committee and Ors, Madhura Kavishwar and Ors v Union of India and Anr, Apurv Satish Gupta and Anr v Union of India and Ors, Christina Ann Thomas and Ors v Union of India and Ors