Staff Reporter
Supreme Court Constitution Bench has scheduled on September 13 and 14, the hearing of cases which are challenging the constitutional validity of reservation for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) and the reservation given for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh as a Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC).
Today, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice U U Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, JB Pardiwala have decided to list these matters next on September 6 to set the time line for hearing and completion of other pre-hearing steps. The matters will commence from September 13.
The Muslim SEBC reservation case is a 2005 civil appeal which raised the issue about whether Muslim community can be declared socially and educationally backward for the purposes of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. The EWS case is about the validity of the Constitution 103rd Amendment Act 2019 which had introduced provision for reservation to this section. Since the issues are overlapping, the bench has decided to take up these matters. The EWS matter will be taken first, followed by the Muslim SEBC quota case.