This book examines the controversial 103rd Constitutional Amendment to
the Indian Constitution that introduced an income and asset
ownership-based new constitutional standard for determining backwardness
marking a significant shift in the government's social and public
policy. It also analyses state level policies towards backwardness
recognition of upper-caste dominant groups through case studies of
Maharashtra, Haryana, and Gujarat. It provides an analytical and
descriptive account of the proliferation of reservation policy in India
and critiques these interventions to assess their implication on
constitutional jurisprudence. Further, it assesses the theoretical and
empirical challenges such developments pose to the principle of
substantive equality and scope of affirmative action policies in Indian
constitutional law and general discrimination law theory. The monograph
shows how opening up of reservations for dominant upper-caste groups and
general category will have implications for the constitutional
commitment to addressing deeply entrenched marginalisation emanating
from the traditional social hierarchy and the understanding of
substantive equality in Indian Constitutional law. Further, it
highlights key contradictions, incoherence, and internal tension in the
design of the reservations for Economically Weaker Sections
Critical, comprehensive, and cogently argued, this book will contribute
and shape ongoing constitutional policy and judicial debates. It will be
of great interest to scholars and researchers of law, Indian politics,
affirmative action, social policy, and public policy.
