Centre seeks 2 years for OBC creamy layer criteria; cites administrative chaos
The Central government has asked the Supreme Court for two years to frame fresh criteria for identifying the creamy layer among Other Backward Classes (OBCs), especially for candidates whose parents are employed in public sector undertakings (PSUs) or the private sector. The request was made on Tuesday through an application seeking clarification of the court’s March 11 judgement, which had disallowed such classification based solely on parental income in these sectors.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, moved the application before a bench led by the Chief Justice of India. He stated that the government was not seeking a review or modification of the judgement, but wanted to highlight the practical difficulties in implementing it retrospectively. Mehta explained that such implementation would require changing the status of older batches of OBC candidates from the creamy layer to the non-creamy layer, which would lead to alterations in cadre, post, and service assignments in the civil services. This would also necessitate corresponding changes for an equal number of candidates who have already been serving in services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Foreign Service (IFS), potentially resulting in chaos.
The Solicitor General requested that the application be listed for hearing before a bench of Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan. The Chief Justice agreed to list the matter for September 1.
Advocate Varun Thakur, opposing the request, argued that the law on the issue had been settled by the Supreme Court and no further clarification was needed.
In its application, the government said it is committed to formulating a policy that will effectively address the observations made by the court while ensuring that the direct and indirect impact of the policy is fair and just. It cautioned that implementing the March 11 judgement without any policy intervention would have a far-reaching impact on government recruitments and admissions in higher education institutions conducted by the central government as well as 18 state and Union Territory governments.
The application also noted that major employers and bodies, including Railways, banks, the Department of Posts, and paramilitary forces, would be overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of representations and litigations seeking retrospective reclassification of the creamy layer. This would put a severe strain on the administrative and judicial systems.
To understand the background, the concept of the creamy layer among OBCs originated from the Supreme Court’s 1992 Indra Sawhney judgement, which excluded the creamy layer from the purview of reservation benefits. Following that, the government issued an office memorandum on September 8, 1993, laying down the criteria for identifying the creamy layer based on income and occupational categories.
In its March 11 judgement, the Supreme Court observed that the determination of creamy layer status must rely on the occupational categories specified in the 1993 office memorandum. It also held that the income of parents employed in private sector organisations cannot automatically lead to the conclusion that a candidate belongs to the creamy layer.
The Centre’s application argued that due to the serious challenges and implications, the government needs adequate time to devise a policy that aligns with the court’s observations while maintaining fairness. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter again on September 1.
