Supreme Court questions creamy layer exclusion for reservation benefits

The Supreme Court on Friday questioned whether children from families that have achieved significant educational and economic advancement through reservation policies should continue to receive quota benefits, emphasizing the principle of social mobility. The court was hearing a petition challenging a Karnataka High Court judgment that upheld the exclusion of a candidate from reservation benefits on the grounds of belonging to the "creamy layer."

A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observations while considering the case of a candidate from the Kuruba community, a backward class in Karnataka. The candidate had been selected as an assistant engineer in the state power transmission corporation under the reserved category but was denied a caste validity certificate. The District Caste and Income Verification Committee concluded the candidate fell within the creamy layer because both parents are state government employees with a combined annual income assessed at approximately Rs 19.48 lakh, exceeding the prescribed threshold.

Justice Nagarathna articulated the court's central concern, asking why children of parents who have attained high...