The Supreme Court has ruled that the creamy layer status of Other Backward Classes (OBC) cannot be determined solely on the basis of parental income, and that treating children of Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and private sector employees differently from those of government servants, for the purpose of reservation eligibility, amounts to hostile discrimination.
“Determination of creamy layer status solely on the basis of income brackets, without reference to the categories of posts and status parameters is clearly unsustainable in law”, Times of India quotes the Supreme Court bench.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan reportedly delivered the ruling while upholding judgments from the High Courts of Madras, Kerala, and Delhi, each of which had examined the eligibility of candidates seeking OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) benefits in Civil Services Examinations.
Several of those High Court orders had ruled in favor of candidates who argued they had been wrongly placed in the creamy layer purely because their parents were employed in PSUs, banks, or the private sector.
The court was categorical in its reasoning, holding that “the object of excluding the creamy layer is to ensure that socially advanced sections within the OBCs do not appropriate benefits meant for the genuinely backward; it is not to create artificial distinctions between equally placed members of the same social class.” the Indian Express report quoted.
(This is a developing story. Please come back for more updates)
