Khalil ur Rehaman, BBA LLB (Hons.), KSLUs Law School, Hubballi
ABSTRACT
In times of toxic nationalism and chauvinism, the term social justice has taken a backseat despite that being the moving spirit and vision of Indian Constitution. There is a chorus for economic justice and reservations based solely on income or wealth. With the advent of capitalism, the situation is fast changing, but, however, there is no great change in the lives of the weaker sections. The rich are getting more richer and the weaker are getting weaker. Day by day the gap is widening. The paper tries to examine the semantics of social justice in modern India and the measures taken towards it so far by revisiting the constitutional promises and commitment guaranteed to the marginalized by our founding fathers and analyses the concept of substantive equality & affirmative action. The scope of Social Justice can be both limited and broader too at the same time. This study is primarily concerned with social justice in its relative context, concerning with the marginalized, the exploited and the minorities. It also contains a critical analysis of the Economically Weaker Sections reservations.
Keywords: Articles 15(4) and 16(4), Affirmative action, Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Merit, Social Justice.
