States can sub-classify SCs for quotas: top court

CategoryPolity

Last Updated03/08/2024

A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, held that the States have the right to sub-classify Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential List.

This is to provide them more preferential treatment in public employment and education.
Sub-categorisation within a class is a constitutional requirement to secure substantive equality
CJI, however, remained silent on introducing the creamy layer principle to the SCs and STs.

Four of the seven judges on the Bench separately said the government should extend the “creamy layer principle” to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as in the case of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
It was necessary to exclude affluent individuals or families from the benefits of reservation and make room for the underprivileged within these classes.
The 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.