Is there a case for reservation for the forward classes?

Yes | Meenakshi Lekhi Social justice is not possible if we exclude the economically backward sections of our society Social justice is inclusive in nature. Further, to those who mistake the provision of reservation under the Constitution to be applicable only to the SCs/STs and OBCs, I wish to remind them that the present quota, introduced through the 124th Constitution Amendment Bill, is provided through adequate amendments in Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, which allow for making “special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections of the citizens”. Meenakshi Lekhi is a BJP member and a lawyer No | Manoj Kumar Jha Nothing stopped the government from providing jobs or scholarships to the poor The 124th Constitution Amendment Bill, proposed and promulgated in just a few days, is a gross and wilful subversion of the principle of social justice, which the Supreme Court has held to be the part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Constitutionally invalid The Constituent Assembly amended Article 15 by inserting Clause, which states: “Nothing in this article or in Clause of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.” The use of income or economic criteria for providing reservation for those not included in the backward classes, or for those belonging to the general sections, is thus constitutionally invalid. Manoj Kumar Jha is an academic and a Rajya Sabha MP IT’S COMPLICATED | Bhartruhari Mahtab When you allow reservation for the advanced classes, it changes the meaning of reservation During the Lok Sabha debate on the 124th Constitution Amendment Bill, to provide reservation in jobs and education for the economically weaker sections in the general category, an opinion was expressed that 50% of the States have to approve it.