A five-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit has framed three questions to examine the validity of the 103rd constitutional amendment through which the Centre sought to provide 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society.

The three questions are:

⚫ Whether the 103rd constitutional amendment can be said to be in breach of the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions, including reservations, based on economic criteria

⚫ Whether the 103rd amendment can be termed a breach of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions in relation to admissions to private educational institutions

⚫ Whether the 103rd constitutional amendment can be said to be a breach of the basic structure of the Constitution in excluding Socially Economic Backward Castes (SEBCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the purview of the EWS reservations.

The bench, which includes Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S. Ravindra Bhat, Bela Trivedi and J.B. Pardiwala, said it had accepted the questions formulated by attorney-general K.K. Venugopal.

The questions will be taken up for consideration by the bench for authoritative pronouncement. Till the 10 per cent economic quota was introduced, reservation was confined to socially disadvantaged sections.

A batch of petitions had challenged the quota benefits for OBCs and EWS. A two-judge bench had upheld the validity of 27 the per cent quota for the OBCs but the question of the EWS quota was referred to the higher bench.