New Delhi
The Supreme Court has said that it for the Government and the legislature to take a call on whether the creamy layer of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes’ (STs) beneficiaries of reservation in education and public service must be excluded from quota benefits.
The apex court declined to entertain a PIL seeking exclusion of the wards/children/dependents of IAS/IPS/IFS/IRS/Class-I officers serving in Madhya Pradesh (or having MP as domicile but serving in other states/UTs) from the scope of reservation for SCs/STs in recruitment/selection/appointment processes. A bench ofJustices BR Gavai and AG Masih, however, permitted the petitioner to withdraw his petition, with liberty to take such steps as permissible in accordance with law.
“We have given our view that taking into consideration the past 75 years, such persons who have already availed benefits (of reservation) and are in a position to compete with others, should be excluded from reservation. But it’s a call to be taken by the executive and the legislature,” a Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih said on Thursday.
The apex court’s comments came after the petitioner’s advocate referred to the apex court’s August 2024 verdict that favoured exclusion of creamy layer from the SC/ST reservation and sought a direction to the Government to come out with a policy to identify such creamy layer.
“State must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes so as to exclude them from the benefit of affirmative action… the criteria for exclusion of the creamy layer from SC/ST for the purpose of affirmative action could be different from the criteria as applicable to the Other Backward Classes [OBCs],” Justice Gavai had observed.
The creamy layer criteria, at present, is applicable only to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to exclude the well-offs among them from quota benefits in terms of the 1992 nine-judge Constitution Bench verdict in the Indira Sawhney case.
The petitioner submitted that prayers were first made before the High Court but had to be withdrawn, as the High Court was of the view that the issue ought to be raised before the Supreme Court. While informing that recruitments are going on in 21 departments of Madhya Pradesh, he prayed for a direction to the State of MP to frame a reservation policy to identify criteria and class of creamy layer.
