What does the Centre’s opposition to creamy layer for SC/STs entail? | Explained

Opposing a batch of petitions seeking a “creamy layer” exclusion from the reserved categories of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) (like that for Other Backward Classes), the Union government has recently reiterated in the Supreme Court of India that this concept of carving out exclusions within reserved categories was not applicable to the SC and ST classifications.

The current batch of petitions pending before the Supreme Court largely came through after a significant judgement of the Supreme Court in August 2024 (Davinder Singh judgement), which recognised the “heterogeneity” of communities classified as SC and ST and the graded backwardness amongst the communities already in these Constitutional lists. While doing so, a seven-judge Bench of the court, headed by then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, granted sanction to State governments to sub-categorise within the existing lists of SCs and STs to ensure benefits of reservations reach communities that have been routinely crowded out by relatively less backward communities within their respective lists.