The 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act, officially the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019, is a constitutional amendment that introduced a 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of citizens in India. This Act was created to address economic disparities and provide affirmative action for the poor who were not covered by existing reservation schemes. The Bill was passed by Parliament in January 2019 and received Presidential assent on January 12, 2019, coming into effect on January 14, 2019.
The Act works by amending two fundamental rights: it inserted a new clause, Article 15(6), and a new clause, Article 16(6), into the Constitution. Article 15(6) empowers the State to make special provisions, including reservation in educational institutions (both public and private, aided or unaided, excluding minority institutions), for the EWS. Article 16(6) allows the State to make provisions for reservation of appointments or posts in favour of the EWS in government jobs. The reservation is limited to a maximum of 10% of the total seats or posts and is in addition to the existing reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The EWS category is defined based on criteria like an annual gross household income of up to ₹8 lakh and exclusion based on certain asset ownership, and it specifically excludes persons already covered under Articles 15(4), 15(5), and 16(4).
The Act connects directly to the concept of reservation in India, which was historically based on social and educational backwardness, marking a significant departure by introducing an economic criterion. It was challenged in the Supreme Court, which, in the Janhit Abhiyan vs. Union of India (2022) case, upheld the constitutional validity of the amendment by a 3:2 majority. The Court ruled that the amendment does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution and that the 50% cap on reservation, established in the Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India (1992) judgment, applies only to reservations for socially and educationally backward classes, not to the EWS quota. The amendment itself replaced the previous understanding that reservation could not be based solely on economic criteria.