A PIL has been filed with the Supreme Court to exclude the creamy layer among Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes from accessing any reservation benefits.
The petition has been mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
The bench has asked the petitioner NGO Samta Andolan Samiti to serve a copy of the petition to the relevant central agency within a week and has set the hearing for the case after two weeks.
Creamy Layer “Taking Away” Benefits
The petition argues that the benefits of reservation and other such government schemes created for SCs and STs are not reaching the actual beneficiaries as a result of the creamy layer in these communities “taking away” the quota benefits.
It notes that the benefits of the reservation policy are not reaching “who are in actual need of the same” and the current practice of including the members of the communities’ creamy layers has led to the policy’s “abuse” by “the advanced and affluent members” of the said communities.
The petitioner is alleging that the affluent sections of the SC/ST communities were “snatching” away most of the benefits available via reservation. It has pointed out that around 95 per cent of these communities were still in disadvantageous positions and not receiving the benefits of reservation and government schemes.
