Caste and class: On OBC reservation

If public resources are to dismantle both caste hierarchy and class inequality, OBC reservation should resist the notion that caste disadvantage makes economic differences among OBC families irrelevant. The ‘creamy layer’ rules are responsible for identifying those OBC members who have advanced sufficiently to no longer require affirmative action.

However, the government has implemented them inconsistently. The Supreme Court in March corrected one inconsistency, that the government cannot hold the salary alone of an OBC candidate’s parent as evidence of social advancement.

In Indra Sawhney (1992), the Court upheld the government’s 27% reservation for OBC candidates in central government services if it also excluded economically advanced sections, i.e., the creamy layer, among OBCs.