SC issues notice on PIL to implement creamy layer in SC/ST reservations

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking implementation of the “creamy layer” principle within reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

A Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant, and comprising Justices R. Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi sought responses from the Union government as well as state governments and Union Territory (UT) administrations in the matter, and tagged the plea with a pending petition seeking similar relief.

The latest petition filed by former bureaucrat Gyanendra Kumar Khare has arrayed the Centre, all state governments, UTs and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as respondents.

The plea, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, contends that the continued non-implementation of the creamy layer exclusion within SC/ST reservations is “arbitrary, unconstitutional, and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution”.

According to the petition, reservation under the Constitution was conceived as a remedial measure to address historical injustice and structural inequality, but was never intended to be a permanent or unconditional entitlement.