Amid the ongoing protests seeking reforms in reservation system, the Central government has approached the Supreme Court, challenging its decision over the basis of defining creamy layer in the Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The top court on Tuesday agreed to hear the petition. The Central government has filed the petition seeking clarification on the order, arguing that the judgement in current form could open floodgate of contestations if it has to be applied retrospectively.

The government has argued that there is no uniform mechanism to assess the social status of those employed in the private sector. Besides, the judgement leaves the scope for financially affluent families to qualify for the reservation benefits within the OBC category with non-creamy layer benefits

What is the case?

A bench of justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan was hearing a dispute in March this year, around successful civil service candidates whose parents were employed in the public-sector undertakings (PSUs). The candidates had challenged their creamy-layer status, defined solely on the basis of their parents' salaries.

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This had left them without OBC quota and other reservation benefits. On March 11, the top court granted them relief and ruled that income of parents working in PSUs and private sectors alone can not be the basis for creamy layer classification.

While the creamy-layer has traditionally been defined by the parents' income, the court's reason was rooted in the Centre’s 1993 Office Memorandum, which governs the framework. The Supreme Court ruled that along with income, the job status and category of the parents should also be considered.

The frameworks leaves other government jobs out of this mechanism because they have clear defined grades, ranks and service classification. In contrast, positions, responsibilities and authorities in PSUs and private sector could change with organisation.

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Wealthy OBC to get quota benefits from judgement

The Centre has warned in its plea that the judgement could allow candidates with parents earning high salaries in private sectors to seek OBC non-creamy layer benefits.

The government has argued that the judgement in its current form could defeat the underlying purpose of reservations.