Government tells Supreme Court reservation quotas cannot exclude affluent SC/ST members

The Union government submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court asserting that reservation schemes for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes cannot rely only on an income threshold known as the “creamy layer.” It argued that equality concerns extend beyond economics, seeking to redress long-standing social exclusion. The Court’s earlier judgment permitted states to create sub-categories within SCs based on socio-economic backwardness and job under-representation, and it directed authorities to devise a creamy-layer exclusion criterion.

The government responded that any modification, especially one introducing income-based preferences, must be preceded by a thorough empirical review and can be effected only by Parliament. It also reiterated that only Parliament can amend the official lists of SC and ST communities under Articles 341 and 342, not state governments or courts.