BackEWS quota: Govt to retain ₹8 lakh income criteria, rules may change next yr
The government said changing EWS quota norms when admissions for NEET-PG students are ongoing will lead to complications
PremiumNEW DELHI : The Modi government has informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to accept the recommendation of a 3-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for EWS of ₹8 lakh or less as changing norms at this time - when admissions for NEET-PG students are ongoing - will lead to complications.
The Economically Weaker Section (EWS) norm revisions can be applied from the next academic year, the government said.
In its affidavit filed by R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the government said the committee has recommended that "only those families whose annual income is up to ₹8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation", news agency PTI reported.
"I respectfully submit that the central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively," the department of social justice and empowerment, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre informed the apex court.
The committee had in its report submitted on 31 Dec last year to the government said, "The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of ₹8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words only those families whose annual income is up to ₹8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation."
The revised EWS criteria retains the contentious ₹ 8 lakh annual income ceiling but excludes families with agricultural land of five acres or more, irrespective of income.
The three-member committee said that in case of admissions to educational institutions, sudden adoption of new criteria inevitably and necessarily would delay the process by several months which would have an inevitable cascading effect on all future admissions and educational activities/teaching/examinations which are bound under various statutory or judicial time prescriptions.
"Under these circumstances, it is completely unadvisable and impractical to apply the new criteria (which are being recommended in this report) and change the goal post in the midst of the ongoing processes resulting in inevitable delay and avoidable complications. When the existing system is ongoing since 2019, no serious prejudice would be caused if it continues for this year as well," the panel recommended.
It said that changing the criteria midway is also bound to result in spate of litigations in courts across the country by the people whose eligibility would change suddenly.
"The committee, therefore, after analysing the pros and cons on this issue and after giving serious consideration, recommends that the existing and ongoing criteria in every ongoing process where EWS reservation is available, be continued and the criteria recommended in this report may be made applicable from next advertisement/admission cycle," it said.
The government had constituted the member committee, comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to Centre, on November 30, last year as per the assurance given to the top court to revisit the criteria for determining the economically weaker sections.
The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas filed by students challenging the Centre and Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) July 29, 2021 notices providing 27% reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) and 10% for EWS category in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-PG) admissions for medical courses for the current academic year.
The top court had posted the matter for further hearing on January 6.
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