On the issue of whether the creamy layer concept, used to exclude the financially well placed among OBCs, could be extended to SC/STs as well, the government relied on the nine judge bench ruling in Indra Sawhney case to reject the suggestion.
It was pointed out that the discussion on excluding the socially advanced in that judgment was expressly “confined to OBCs only and has no relevance in the case of SC/STs.”
The government further submitted that a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Ashoka Kumar Thakur judgment had clarified that for the purpose of reservation, the principles of creamy layer are not applicable to SC/ STs.
