New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday lauded the decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the reservation for the Economically Weaker Section and said it is a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his "mission" to provide social justice to the country's poor.
BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh said, "Supreme Court upholds the legality of EWS reservation for unreserved sections. Another big credit for PM Narendra Modi's vision of Gareeb Kalyan. A big boost in the direction of social justice ."
Echoing the view, BJP general secretary C T Ravi said the verdict is yet another victory for Modi in his mission to provide social justice to India's poor.
“The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court upholds the validity of the 10 per cent EWS reservation amongst the General Category. This is yet another victory for PM Shri Narendra Modi in his mission to provide social justice to India's Poor,” he tweeted.
On Monday, a Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, in a majority view of 2-3, upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitution amendment providing 10 per cent reservation to people belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs.
Of the five-judge bench, Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justice Ravindra Bhat passed a dissenting judgment while Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela Trivedi, and JB Pardiwala upheld the amendment.
Academician Mohan Gopal had opened the arguments in the case before the bench, which also comprised justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravindra Bhat, Bela M Trivedi, and J B Pardiwala, on September 13 and opposed the EWS quota amendment by terming it as "deceitful and a backdoor attempt" to destroy the concept of reservation.
Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, had also opposed the EWS quota, saying the economic criteria cannot be the basis for classification and the top court will have to revisit the Indira Sawhney (Mandal) judgement if it decides to uphold this reservation.