Only days after Parliament rapidly approved a 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in government jobs and education, the Union government was reported in January 2019 to be preparing a further bill. Its aim would be to make private educational institutes apply the quota as a matter of law.

What the proposed law would do

According to senior government sources, a draft was close to final and was being discussed within the government, with the intention of bringing it in before the model code of conduct for the general election took effect. The bill would cover not only the new EWS quota but also reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in private institutions.

Top officials from the Union ministries of law and human resource development were said to have held talks on the measure after clearance from the top of the government.

The constitutional background

The new law was intended to give practical effect to two constitutional amendments:

• the 93rd amendment of 2006, which introduced the OBC quota and contained enabling provisions for applying it in private institutions; and
• the 103rd amendment, passed and notified in January 2019, which allows an additional 10% quota for EWS candidates.

During the first UPA government, the Central Educational Institutes Amendment Act 2006 required institutions funded by the Centre to implement the OBC quota. However, no separate legislation was passed for private institutes, so the question of reservation there remained unresolved. Without a dedicated law, the sources indicated, the 103rd amendment could face the same uncertainty.

Javadekar’s announcement

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar gave an early signal at a press conference called at short notice on Tuesday evening. He said the EWS quota would be applied from the 2019-20 academic session, and indicated that around 40 thousand colleges and 900 universities across the country would be covered.

What happened next

The general election that the government was preparing for was held between 11 April and 19 May 2019. The BJP won 303 of 543 seats and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

See also: more election news

Originally published on 16 January 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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