India's Delhi High Court has ruled that candidates from the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) — a category introduced in 2019 to extend reservation benefits to non-caste-based poor — cannot claim the same age limit relaxations or additional examination attempts granted to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class applicants in central government appointments. A two-judge bench held that the disadvantages faced by historically marginalised social groups are fundamentally different from those faced by the economically deprived, and that EWS status does not confer automatic parity with SC/ST/OBC candidates on such ancillary benefits. The ruling is significant as it draws a clear legal boundary between caste-based and income-based affirmative action in India's competitive civil services recruitment system.