Overview
- A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi sought responses from the Union and all states on a PIL seeking exclusion of the creamy layer from SC/ST reservation benefits.
- The petition, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and registered as W.P.(C) No. 001276/2025, asks the Court to direct a policy that withholds quotas from socially and economically advanced individuals within SC/ST groups.
- Upadhyay argues that reservations are a remedial measure being cornered by an elite within SC/ST communities and urges excluding children of those holding constitutional or senior government posts from availing the benefit.
- The Court tagged the case with the pending Ramashankar Prajapati matter, which seeks priority for economically weaker candidates within reserved categories in education and public employment.
- The step comes after a seven-judge bench in August 2024 signaled applying a creamy layer test to SC/STs, even as the Union Cabinet has stated the Constitution does not provide for such a filter in SC/ST reservations.