SC refuses to entertain plea seeking exclusions from SC, ST quotas in MP

SC refuses to entertain plea seeking exclusions from SC, ST quotas in MP

SC refuses to entertain plea seeking exclusions from SC, ST quotas in MP ByAbraham Thomas Jan 09, 2025 02:56 PM IST Share Via Copy Link The petitioner approached the court after the Madhya Pradesh high court refused to entertain his plea seeking the exclusion of children of IAS and IPS officers from SC and ST reservation

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking the exclusion of children of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) reservation benefits in Madhya Pradesh. It said the reference to the exclusion of the creamy layer from SC and ST quotas in a seven-judge Constitution bench’s August 2024 ruling in the State of Punjab versus the Davinder Singh case was only a view and the legislature has to decide in this regard.

The Supreme Court allowed the withdrawal of the plea. (ANI)

“No mandamus was issued by us. It was a view expressed by one of the judges [in the seven-judge bench] that was endorsed by two other judges. The unanimous view was that sub-classification within SC/ST was permissible,” said a bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and Augustine George Masih, referring to the view on the exclusion of creamy layer.

The petitioner, Santosh Malviya, approached the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh high court refused to entertain his plea. The high court in December said only the top court could look into the matter as it involved the interpretation of the August 2024 ruling.

The court allowed Malviya to withdraw the plea as his lawyer Siddharth R Gupta said he would like to move a representation to the state government.

As Gupta read from the seven-judge bench ruling, the bench said, “We gave a view that 75 years since the Constitution has come into force, creamy layer should be excluded [from SC/ST]. It is only a view and a decision has to be taken by the legislature.”

Gupta said justices Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal, and SC Sharma in the seven-judge bench endorsed Justice Gavai’s view in the August 2024 ruling. He said this constituted a majority view of four among the seven judges. Gupta said the remaining judges – then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Manoj Misra – remained silent on this issue. He said Justice Bela M Trivedi dissented with the majority view by holding sub-classification within SC and ST to be impermissible.

The seven-judge bench considered whether reservation can be given to the most backward among SC and ST by way of sub-classification and not creamy layer.

Gupta said the Constitution bench gave the decision six months back and recruitment was taking place in Madhya Pradesh. “The IAS and IPS people have marched forward. They will never bring a law against themselves.” The bench told Gupta that the legislators are there and they will come up with a law.

Justice Gavai was part of the seven-judge bench which said for the benefits of reservation to reach the backward among SC and ST, it was necessary to exclude wards and dependents of that community who became IAS and IPS officers and attained social advancement.

As part of the seven-judge bench, Justice Gavai wrote a separate concurring view. “If a member of a designated backward class becomes a member of IAS or IPS or any other All India Service, his status in the society rises and he is no longer socially disadvantaged,” he said.

He referred to the nine-judge bench ruling in the Indra Sawhney case (1992) which talked of the creamy layer in the context of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and not SC and ST. “The question that will have to be posed is whether equal treatment to unequal in the category of Scheduled Castes would advance the constitutional objective of equality or would thwart it?” He added, “Can a child of IAS/IPS or civil service officers be equated with a child of a disadvantaged member belonging to SCs, studying in a gram panchayat or Zilla Parishad school in a village?”

Justice Gavai said the state must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer from the SC and ST to exclude them from affirmative action. “In my view, only this and this alone can achieve the real equality as enshrined under the Constitution.” He added that the criteria for the exclusion of creamy layer among SC and ST for affirmative action have to be different from the criteria presently applicable to OBCs.

Justices Vikram Nath and SC Sharma backed Justice Gavai. Justice Nath said the criteria for the exclusion of creamy layer among SC and ST should be different from the one applicable to OBC. Justice Sharma said, “For the full realisation of substantive equality inter se the SC and ST, the identification of the creamy layer qua SC/ST ought to become a constitutional imperative for the state.”

Justice Mithal said the state must undertake a periodic exercise to exclude the class of person, who after taking advantage of reservation, has come to march shoulder to shoulder with the general category. “Reservation, if any, has to be limited only for the first generation or one generation and if any generation in the family has taken advantage of the reservation and has achieved higher status, the benefit of reservation would not be logically available to the second generation.”

He endorsed Justice Gavai’s view and said that a child studying in Delhi’s St Stephen’s College or any good urban college cannot be bracketed or equated with a child studying in a rural school or college. Justice Mithal emphasised that instead of excluding a caste from the scope of reservation, the family which has once benefited, its next generation should not be allowed to take advantage of such affirmative action.

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