CREAMY LAYER WILL FORCE THE SC.STs TO GO BACK, TO REVERT TO SOCIAL DISCRIMINATIONS.28.08.2025.
TM Exclusive: Will Creamy Layer for SC/ST Quotas Undermine Constitutional Intent? Retired Judge Warns of Risks
New Delhi- On August 11, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Union government in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Ramashankar Prajapati and Yamuna Prasad, both from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) backgrounds, advocating for an income-based prioritization within SC/ST reservations.
The PIL seeks to implement a "creamy layer" mechanism to ensure that reservation benefits in government employment and educational opportunities prioritize the economically disadvantaged within these communities. The petitioners argue that wealthier SC/ST families have disproportionately captured these benefits, leaving the poorest behind.
Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, acknowledging the petition’s far-reaching implications, cautioned the counsel to brace for significant opposition and requested responses from the government by October 10, 2025. This development has reignited debates over the structure of India’s reservation policies, with a retired Judge Anil Vaidya warning of profound constitutional and social risks associated with introducing a creamy layer for SC/ST communities.
Constitutional Misalignment with Historical Vision
Retired Judge Anil Vaidya argues that applying a creamy layer to SC/ST reservations risks deviating from the Indian Constitution’s original intent, as envisioned by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. During the 1930–32 Round Table Conferences and Constituent Assembly debates, Ambedkar advocated for reservations to ensure social representation for all SC/ST individuals, irrespective of economic status.
Vaidya points to historical examples of affluent SC/ST figures like Dashrath Patil, Rajabhau Khobragade, and Amritrao Rankhambe, who benefited from undifferentiated reservations, a principle supported to advance social justice. He notes that constitutional provisions like Articles 15(4), 15(5), 16(4), and 16(5) enable reservations without referencing a creamy layer, and Articles 341 and 342, which list SCs and STs, similarly make no such distinction.
The 1992 Indira Sawhney vs. Union of India ruling by a nine-judge bench explicitly excluded SC/STs from the creamy layer principle, reinforcing this stance. Vaidya warns that introducing this mechanism through judicial intervention could undermine Ambedkar’s philosophy of social mobility and equality, transforming reservations into a poverty-alleviation program rather than a tool for broader social representation.
Risks of Social Fragmentation and Inequity
Vaidya highlights the danger of creating divisions within SC/ST communities by categorizing individuals based on economic status. A creamy layer policy could fracture these groups, fostering tensions between wealthier and poorer members and weakening their collective fight against historical marginalization. He emphasizes that even economically better-off SC/ST individuals face caste-based discrimination, such as false accusations, dismissals, or lower postings in employment.
Excluding them from reservations could force them into open-category competitions, where biased selection boards might unfairly deny them opportunities, potentially allowing wealthier SC/ST members to dominate reserved seats. This could perpetuate intra-community inequities, contrary to the PIL’s goal of aiding the most disadvantaged. Vaidya warns that such fragmentation could destabilize the social cohesion that reservations were designed to promote, creating two distinct groups within SC/ST communities and undermining their unified advocacy for equality.
Threats to Legal Protections and Constitutional Balance
A critical concern raised by Vaidya is the potential loss of legal protections for SC/ST individuals classified as part of the creamy layer. He questions whether such individuals would be excluded from safeguards under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, leaving them vulnerable to caste-based discrimination without legal recourse. Vaidya references the 1951 Dorai Champakan vs. Madras Government case, where the Supreme Court struck down reservations, prompting constitutional amendments under Article 15(4) to secure affirmative action despite opposition.
He cautions that altering the reservation framework without careful consideration could disrupt this delicate constitutional balance, potentially sparking further legal challenges. The Supreme Court’s recent guidance on August 1, 2024, in cases like Punjab Government vs. Devendra Singh and Andhra Pradesh, recommending a creamy layer for SC/STs, has intensified this debate.
Vaidya urges the government, lawmakers, and legal professionals to approach this issue cautiously to preserve the spirit of social justice, ensuring that any reform aligns with the Constitution’s foundational principles and avoids eroding protections for SC/ST communities.
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From getting Dalit grooms off the horse to drinking water from the pot: Why is ‘creamy layer’ a conspiracy of the upper castes in SC/ST reservation, Ajaak lists the reasons
Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability, which accepts caste-based stigma. Despite economic prosperity, the SC class has to face discrimination in workplaces and society.
Jaipur: Disputes are once again arising over the reservation system provided to Scheduled Castes/Tribes (SC/ST) by the Indian Constitution. A petition filed in the Supreme Court has demanded the implementation of ‘creamy layer’ (excluding economically prosperous class from reservation) in SC/ST reservation like OBC.
In response to this, Dr. Ambedkar Scheduled Caste Officers- Employees Association (AJAK) Rajasthan has sent a memorandum to President Draupadi Murmu strongly opposing this ‘wrong and malicious’ concept and has demanded the central government to advocate it in the Supreme Court.
AJAK President and retired IAS officer Shriram Chordia has said in a letter that reservation is a measure to remove social backwardness, not economic assistance. He cited recent incidents highlighting the deep social hatred and discrimination against the SC/ST community. He said, “SC/ST class was deprived of education and wealth acquisition by the conservative and Manuvadi system prevailing for thousands of years in Indian history. They were forced to do menial jobs generation after generation and were forced to live a socially despised, excluded and inhuman life. They were divided on the basis of birth, due to which this society is deprived of its fundamental rights and is living at the lowest rung of the society.”
“To free this deprived, exploited and oppressed society from caste inequality and untouchability prevailing for thousands of years and to give them the right to live a respectable life like other citizens in a democracy and to bring them into the mainstream of the country along with other societies, an attempt was made to establish social justice by making provision for the system of representation (reservation) in the Indian Constitution and to ensure social participation of all castes in society and administration.” Chordia wrote, “In view of the caste system in India, the demand for reservation on economic basis is strange because in the last 3-4 years in Rajasthan alone, 60 Dalit grooms have been humiliated on the basis of caste and taken down from the horse, and a Dalit student of school (temple of education) was killed for drinking water from a pot and Dalits were killed for keeping a moustache.” He stressed that crimes against Dalits are increasing on the basis of caste, not on economic basis. If it were on economic basis, then a Dalit IPS officer would not have to take out a procession under police protection and the funeral procession of a Dalit person is stopped from going on the main road and in the temple only on the basis of caste and not on economic basis. Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability, which accepts caste-based stigma. Despite economic prosperity, the SC class has to face discrimination in workplaces and society. (Example: 50,000 annual atrocities according to NCRB 2023). The principle of creamy layer ignores this reality.”
Supreme Court petition and appeal to the government
The memorandum states that in Ramashankar Prajapati vs. Government of India (Writ Petition No. 682/2025), a demand has been made to implement creamy layer in SC/ST reservation, on which the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Central Government to respond on September 10.
Ajak has requested the President to direct the Central and State Governments and the National Scheduled Caste Commission to oppose this petition and ensure that creamy layer is not applied in SC/ST reservation. Also, senior advocates should be appointed to plead this case.
Chordia clarified in his argument that Articles 15 (4), 16 (4), 335 and 341 of the Constitution provide reservation to SC/ST to eliminate social discrimination and untouchability, and not only on the basis of economic weakness. He cited the Supreme Court’s Indra Sawhney (1992) and M. Nagaraj Citing the decisions of (2006), it said that the Court itself has accepted that SC/ST reservation is based on social backwardness, not on economic status, and that is why the concept of creamy layer for SC/ST was kept different from OBC.
Ajak has warned that if creamy layer is implemented in SC/ST reservation, it will open the way to weaken the reservation, which will be a violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Constitution. This will limit the access of economically prosperous people of SC/ST community to high positions (such as IAS, IPS, IRS, Judiciary), whereas the purpose of reservation is to ensure adequate representation of these classes in administration and society.
The memorandum said that the principle of reservation is already being flouted by methods like privatization, outsourcing, contractual appointments and not filling vacancies. Creamy layer is another link in this chain whose aim is to deprive Dalit-Adivasis of their constitutional rights.
Geetha Sunil Pillai
Courtesy : Hindi News
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