SC ruled that the creamy layer must be excluded from reservation and that the states must define the criteria for the layers for SCs and STs.
Published Aug 10, 2024 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 10, 2024 | 3:18 PM
An arbitrary creamy layer criteria would hamper communities as whole, rather than uplifting certain sections, said Karnataka's IT minister Priyank Kharge. (Representational pic/iStock)
The Supreme Court’s 1 August judgement asking states to identify the ‘creamy layer’ in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs) has raised hackles among activists and political leaders in Karnataka.
Dalit leaders are viewing the order with suspicion, calling it “a ploy to phase out reservation altogether”.
Speaking to South First, M Venkataswamy, president of Dalit organisation Samatha Sainik Dal said that unfulfilled reservation quotas in the higher levels of government as well as in central university posts were proof enough that the ‘dominant SC/ST groups’ were not purposely keeping the more deprived sections away from jobs.
“You cannot oppress communities for over 3,000 years, and then decide on a whim that a section of those people have progressed enough, without considering empirical evidence,” he said.
While some members of SCs and STs might have achieved success, the truth was that most people were still backward, he said.
“Imposing a creamy layer criteria will make things difficult for people who deserve reservation because getting a non-creamy layer certificate is unnecessarily hard and involves a lot of red tape,” Venkataswamy said.
“This means the truly poor, socially backward people, who have no means of coming up with ‘income certificates’ will not be able to avail the benefits of reservation automatically, as they have been getting so far,” he added.
The Supreme Court judgement said that states would be authorised to sub-classify SCs and STs to ensure quotas for castes that are more backward among them.
The court also ruled that the creamy layer must be excluded from enjoying the benefits of reservation and that the states must define the criteria for the layers for SCs and STs.
Justice Pankaj Mithal, who was part of the bench, opined that reservations should be limited to the first generation. Once a member of the first generation had attained a higher status through reservations, the subsequent generation should not be entitled to the same benefits, he said.
At the time of independence, the reservation was limited to SC and ST communities, and it came up to 22.5 percent.
The Mandal Commission in 1980, recommended that Other Backward Classes (OBCs), apart from SCs and STs, should receive 27 percent reservation in government jobs, promotions, and educational institutions. The recommendations were meant to uplift the depressed sections of society, taking the reservation cap up to 50 percent.
The implementation of the Commission’s recommendations in 1990 triggered widespread protests. The Supreme Court then came up with the ‘creamy layer’ criteria in the reservations, excluding certain people with a comparatively privileged background to even out the playing field.
Right now, the creamy layer concept among OBCs excludes a person from reservation, if:
i) His/her either parent is in government service in a group A or group B post, or
ii) The family’s gross annual income has been above ₹8 lakh for the past three years.
People claiming reservation under the OBC quota have to furnish a “non-creamy layer” certificate, declaring that their family does not meet the creamy layer criteria.
According to a 2023 Parliamentary Standing Committee report, the percentage of SCs and STs reduced in the higher echelons of central government services.
Group A, for example, had about 13 percent of SC and 5.5 percent of ST employees, falling short of the reservation limits of 15 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Group C, however, which included safai karamcharis and sanitation workers, had more, 36.9 percent of SC and 6.9 percent of ST employees.
The situation seemed more dire in central universities. According to the UGC Annual Report, 2023, out of the total teaching staff in the 45 universities assessed, 10.9 percent of employees were from the SC and 4.9 percent were from the ST communities.
When it came to professors, only 1.8 percent were STs, and 7.4 percent were SCs. The numbers were low in Group C posts as well: 9.5 percent SCs and 5.6 percent STs.
Speaking to South First, Karnataka’s IT minister Priyank Kharge said the judgement’s ambiguity was making it difficult to set proper criteria.
“We haven’t had a proper caste and socio-economic census, and the court has asked that all decisions be backed by empirical data,” he said.
It was completely possible, he said, adding that an arbitrary creamy layer criteria would hamper communities as a whole, rather than uplifting certain sections.
“We can’t yet determine if there are sections of these communities that are truly affluent enough to dominate the rest of them and take away reservation benefits from the truly deserving section,” the minister said.
The issue looked bipartisan, cutting across state boundaries. Union Minister Ramdas Athawale from Maharashtra added his voice to the dissent.
He said while his party (Republican Party of India-A) favoured internal reservation, no SC person would ever agree to introducing a creamy layer and depriving people of their fundamental rights.
Constitutionally, reservation is a fundamental right, meant to reach all deserving communities to correct centuries of deprivation, Manohar Ranganathan of the Dalit Human Rights Foundation told South First.
“This is not just about economics. Reservation is about representation, and the truth is that many communities are still not socially on par with the general category, as the government employment data shows,” he said before making a suggestion.
“We need to adopt a proper evaluation methodology to evaluate whether schemes for SC and ST welfare reach these communities before considering the creamy layer concepts,” he opined.
(Mrunmayee Kulkarni is a Bengaluru-based political journalist. She also covers civic issues, and industrial policies for EVs and MSMEs. Edited by Majnu Babu)
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