Centre not for SC/ST creamy layer

Centre not for SC/ST creamy layer

What has happened?

The government on Wednesday opposed the idea of a “creamy layer” within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category.

Background

The court was hearing a petition filed by Samta Andolan Samiti, representing the poor and downtrodden strata of the SC/ST community in Rajasthan, which contended that the rich among the SC/ST communities were “snatching away” quota benefits while the deserving and impoverished among them continue to “bite the dust.”

Mandal judgement excluded creamy layer from OBCs

The Mandal judgment however confined the exclusion of the creamy layer only to the OBCs and not to the SC/STs.

Petition referred to 2006 judgement of SC

The Samta Andolan Samiti petition referred to the 2006 Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in the M. Nagaraj case, which observed that the “means test (a scrutiny of the value and assets of an individual claiming reservation) should be taken into consideration to exclude the creamy layer from the protected group earmarked for reservation.”

What now?

The Bench asked the government to file a categorical affidavit