Plea in Telangana high court against quota for upper class poor

Hyderabad: A writ petition challenging the 10 per cent reservations given to economically backward sections has been moved before the Telangana High Court, which urges it to declare it as illegal.

TS Backward Classes Welfare Association president Jajula Srinivas Goud filed the petition saying the 103rd amendment approving the measure was against the basic structure of the Constitution.

The petitioner referred to the Supreme Court’s 50 per cent cap on reservations in the Indira Sawhney case and the decision of the 13-judge constitutional bench in the Kesavananda  Bharati case, which held that Parliament can amend the Constitution but not destroy its basic structure.

He said the rules specify that a survey should be conducted by a commission or a committee before taking a decision on providing reservations. The Centre had provided the reservations on economic status basis without empirical data and without conducting the survey.

Mr Goud objected to the phrase “economically weaker sections”  in the amendment Act as a misnomer and said it was misleading and misconceived. He said that economically weaker sections cannot be termed as a homogeneous class under Articles 15 (1) and 16 (1) of the Constitution. The creation of such a class violates the Articles 14, 15 (1) and 16 (1) as it creates an artificial class among equals, thereby discriminating against other equals.