In order to guarantee that more underprivileged members of the Scheduled Castes and scheduled tribes have better access to seats in educational institutions and government employment, a seven-judge supreme court panel on thursday permitted subclassification within those categories.
 
Four of the six justices who supported the decision went on to recommend that scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe reservations be covered by the "creamy layer" theory, despite the fact that the court was not asked to consider this issue.

The idea was met with strong opposition from activists belonging to the groups of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They informed Scroll that the court didn't need to become involved in the case.
 
The "creamy layer" theory is being used to reserve seats for Other Backward Classes, which means that those whose families have amassed social and economic advantages over time are not eligible for affirmative action programs. Judges ruled on thursday that a person who belongs to the "creamy layer" of the scheduled caste or scheduled tribes society should not be eligible for reservation privileges.
 
The judges' views are not legally binding because the court did not hear arguments on the creamy layer within the groups of scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe.
 
The judges' recommendation was criticised by prabhakar Nisargandh, an associate professor of sociology at Vijaysinha Yadav college in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. He remarked, "This demonstrates that the court's intention was to dilute Dalit representation altogether, not to ensure equity within Dalit representation."
 
Some questioned the court's observations' lack of supporting data.
 
"Is there any evidence that Dalits and Adivasis even share a creamy layer?" questioned National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations chairman ashok Bharti.
 
What have the Judges said?
Since the court was addressing the issue of "equality among a group of unequals," Justice BR Gavai noted in his ruling that the creamy layer among Scheduled Castes and scheduled tribes needed to be taken into consideration.
 
"Is it possible to compare a child of an IAS/IPS [Indian Administrative and police Services] or civil service officer to a child of a scheduled caste member who is a disadvantaged student attending a gramme panchayat or zilla parishad school in a village?" questioned Gavai, the lone member of the judiciary from a scheduled caste group.

A youngster in the first group would have access to "far superior and conducive for educational upliftment" resources, according to Gavai. Thus, according to Gavai, children of Scheduled Castes and scheduled tribes members who have benefited from reservations cannot be treated equally with offspring of those who have not.
 
In closing, Gavai said, "The state needs to develop a policy to identify creamy layer among the SC-ST category and remove them from the fold of affirmative action." "There is no other path to true equality but this one."
 
But according to Gavai, the standards for identifying the creamy layer within the scheduled tribes and Scheduled Castes have to be distinct from those used for the Other Backward Classes.
 
Judges Satish Chandra Sharma, Pankaj Mithal, and vikram Nath agreed with Gavai's ruling.
 
Reserving advantages should be "limited only for the first generation or one generation" within a category, according to Mithal, who went one step further. According to Mithal, "the benefit of reservation would not be logically available to the second generation if any generation in the family has taken advantage of it and has achieved higher status."

Objections against the judgement
India Herald was informed by activists and leaders of the Dalit and Adivasi communities that the court's recommendations violated the tenet that reservations are intended to provide historically marginalised groups proportionate representation rather than to reduce poverty.
 
This, according to Pranab Doley, a young leader and activist from the Assamese Mising group, rendered the idea of reservations incompatible with the concept of the creamy layer. He pointed out that thousands of employment positions were open to members of scheduled tribes, and that everyone who qualifies from a tribal or caste group should be given the chance to fill them.
 
 
 
 
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G GOWTHAM

03/08/2024 08:33 AM