The Union Government, on Monday, moved the Supreme Court seeking its directions regarding the applicability of its March 11 (2026) judgment in which the top court had ruled that income cannot be the sole criterion for determining the creamy layer among OBCs. The apex court ordered the govt to consider claims by nearly 100 OBC candidates who were selected in Civil Services Examinations (CSE) since 2016 but rejected by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the basis of creamy layer criteria. The apex court had given six months’ time for the implementation of its judgment.
The Centre has clarified that its appeal for clarification and appropriate directions solely concerned the CSE-2025 as the selection process “stood substantially concluded and at the terminal stage of service allocation.”
In its petition, the Centre has argued that the apex court’s March 11 judgment came five days after the final result of CSE-2025 was already declared and any delay in finalisation of the category-wise merit and allocation list would have a cascading effect—from training to seniority and pay fixation of the incoming batch.
The govt has also contended that the application of the judgment, with retrospective effect, would create a peculiar and acute anomaly in the entire system.
The Centre’s clarification plea has been filed at a time when the Foundation Course for the CSE-2025 batch is likely to be scheduled to begin at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie this week.
The timing of the govt’s move acquires importance as there are crucial Assembly elections ahead, with anti-reservation protests underway at some places.
What is interesting is that, in its appeal, the DoPT has not mentioned the applicability of the Supreme Court judgment from the next batches.
The issue actually arose out of a DoPT letter of October 14, 2004, clarifying an Official Memorandum (OM) of September 1993 on the creamy layer criterion for OBCs. The 1993 OM had excluded income from salary and agricultural sources from the income/wealth test used to determine creamy layer status. However, the 2004 clarification said the salary income of employees in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the private sector would be a criterion.
Since then, around 100 OBC candidates, who cleared the CSE and found their OBC claims being rejected by the DoPT on creamy layer grounds, became petitioners.
Get Latest Updates