Supreme Court bats for excluding creamy layer among SC/STs from reservation

In what could come as a significant development in the field of affirmative action, the Supreme Court on Thursday called for identification of creamy layer among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) to take them out of the fold of affirmative action (reservation). .Currently the principle of creamy layer applies only to Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) and not SC/STs. However, four of the seven top court judges who were part of the bench which allowed sub-classification of SC/STs, also called for creamy layer identification among SC/STs, so that benefits of reservation reach only the backward among such communities. Justice BR Gavai in his concurring judgment said that the ultimate aim of reservation is to realise real equality in the country and creamy lawyer among SC/STs should be identified and excluded from the benefits of reservation. "State must evolve a policy to identify creamy layer among the SC ST category and take them out of the fold of affirmative action (reservation). This is the only way to gain true equality," Justice Gavai said.Justice Vikram Nath too said the creamy layer principle applicable to OBCs should also apply to the SCs but the criteria for excluding creamy layer of SCs from the ambit of reservation could be different from that applicable to OBCs."I am also in agreement with the opinion of brother Justice Gavai that the creamy layer principle is also applicable to Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes and that the criteria for exclusion of creamy lawyer for the purpose of affirmative action could be different from the criteria as applicable to the Other Backward Classes," Justice Nath said. .Justice Pankaj Mithal also echoed similar sentiments holding that reservation should be meant for only the first generation among a category."Reservation should be meant for only the first generation among a category and if the second generation has come up then benefits of reservation shall not be given and State should see if after reservation, the second generation has come shoulder to shoulder with the general category," he stated.Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said that identification of creamy layer among SC/STs must become a constitutional imperative.Two judges on the Bench, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Manoj Misra did not express any opinion in this regard, while Justice Bela Trivedi delivered a dissenting judgment..Pertinently, as reported by the Bar & Bench, the debate on continuing reservation for those whose one generation may have already benefited had also taken place during the hearing of the case in February. “What happens is a person from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe gets into IAS, IPS. Once he is an IAS or IPS or IFS, his children no more suffer the disadvantages that the persons from the category who are residing in the villages but then by virtue of reservation they are also entitled to get it in second generation or third generation,” Justice Gavai had said then..[Read Judgment]