The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 13 September, began its hearing on the legal validity of the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, which introduced a 10 percent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions.
Legal Scholar G Mohan Gopal, representing the petitioners, called the amendment a "fraud" on the Indian Constitution, and claimed that it was dividing the country along caste lines, The Indian Express reported.
"It (the amendment) will change the identity of the Constitution in the minds of people as something which protects the privileged rather than the weak," he added.
Gopal further said that reservation was a tool to only ensure representation so that it does not "eat up equality of opportunity which is the concern of the backward classes."