Quota jargon: what the court means by 'creamy layer'

ELITE AMONG OBCS: Candidates falling in the ‘creamy layer’ will not get OBC quota.

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Keywords: Reservation , Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld 27 per cent reservations for Other Backward Castes (OBC) students in higher educational institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Candidates falling in the ‘creamy layer’ though would not be eligible for the quota.

The creamy layer concept was first introduced by the Supreme Court in the Mandal judgment delivered in November 1992 to indicate an elite group among the Other Backward Classes.

The court had in 1992 asked the government to exclude the `creamy layer' from the purview of quotas to ensure that only the neediest among the OBCs benefited by reservation.

As per the principles laid down in the Mandal judgment, the children of constitutional functionaries including the President, judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, members of the Union Public Service Commission, Groups A and B or Class I or II officers of the All-India Central and State services and children of public sector employees are excluded from reservation.