The Centre has decided to keep the existing annual income limit of Rs. 8 lakh for identifying the economically weaker section (EWS) following the recommendation of a committee set up to revisit this criterion after the Supreme Court raised doubts about the 10 percent quota rollout while dealing with NEET-PG admissions. ‘The central government has decided to adopt the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively,’ the Centre said in an affidavit filed late Saturday night, appending a copy of the committee’s report.
‘The committee has come to the conclusion that the existing annual income criteria of Rs. 8 lakh is not over-inclusive,’ said the three-member committee, which included former union finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, member secretary ICSSR VK Malhotra, and principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal.
The income criterion for identifying EWS was introduced by a notification dated January 17, 2019, which also stipulated that the beneficiary’s family must not own or possess residential flat of 1,000 square feet or above, five acres of agricultural land, or a residential plot of 100/200 square yards or above in notified or non-notified municipalities.
The committee was formed on November 30 after the Supreme Court, while considering a number of petitions challenging the introduction of a 10% EWS and a 27% OBC quota in NEET-PG admissions for the 2020-21 academic year, questioned whether an income threshold of Rs. 8 lakh could be applied uniformly across the country. It was also mentioned that this was the same cutoff used to identify creamy layer or socially advanced people within OBCs.
The ministry of social justice and empowerment filed the affidavit ahead of the hearing of NEET-PG petitions on January 6.
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