National:  The Supreme Court's decision to implement the creamy layer principle in SC-ST reservation has evoked strong reactions from different parts of the country. Political parties are also reacting to this in their own way.

In such a situation, the country's Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has clarified the situation and said that excluding the creamy layer from SC-ST is the Supreme Court's comment (observation), not a directive. That is, this statement of the Supreme Court expressed in the decision is only its opinion, the court has not given any direction to do so.

'Supreme Court's observation'

In a special conversation with Dainik Jagran on Wednesday, Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the matter of excluding the creamy layer is the observation of the Supreme Court. There is a difference between direction and observation. It has to be understood what was the matter before the Supreme Court on which the bench of seven judges gave the verdict.

He says that the Punjab government made a law in 2005-2006, which talked about giving 50 percent of the reservation of Scheduled Castes (SC) to Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikhs. The High Court had canceled that law saying that Article 341 does not talk about sub-classification, so you cannot go against it. That matter came to the Supreme Court.

There are two parts of the court's decision: Meghwal

Then there was a case in Andhra Pradesh which was similar. There was a three-judge bench decision on sub-classification and there was a five-judge bench decision which were contradictory. So these cases were considered and decided by a seven-judge bench. There were several states involved in this case which had sought directions.

Meghwal says that the decision given by the seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2024 has two parts. One part is an observation which is not a directive. There should be a creamy layer in the SC-ST category, this is not a directive, this is the observation of the Supreme Court. There is confusion in this matter and the government has clarified the situation on this. The second part of the decision is a directive, but those instructions are also to the states. No instructions have been given to the Center in the decision and neither was the central government a party in that case.

Second Part

Meghwal said that in the second part of the decision, the court has directed the states that if you want, you can do sub-categorization in the Scheduled Caste category. Doing so will not be unconstitutional. But there are two conditions for it. The first condition is that data has to be collected to show that the castes for which reservation is to be given through sub-categorization do not have adequate representation. Such sub-categorization cannot be done without data.

He said that the second condition is that the reservation given to a caste by sub-categorizing it among the scheduled castes cannot be hundred percent. That is, the sub-category to which reservation is being given cannot be given the entire reservation of the SC category. With these two conditions, the states that want to do so will collect the data and move forward. This is the only thing that should be understood about this decision.

'PM made it clear'

He said that after this decision, opposition and Congress colleagues had asked questions in the Lok Sabha and even then he had clarified it. Apart from this, SC-ST MPs of BJP had also met the Prime Minister and handed him a memorandum to clarify it. There was a cabinet meeting on the same day, 9th August and the Prime Minister had clarified in it that creamy layer is not applicable in the case of SC-ST.

The Law Minister said that this has become clear. If the opposition creates a fake narrative, then it will definitely say something. It is noteworthy that a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court had given a decision with a majority of six to one, in which it was said that sub-classification can be done in the reservation of SC category to give the benefit of reservation to the more needy. Four judges of the bench had also said in their decision to apply the principle of creamy layer in SC-ST reservation. Politics has been heated regarding SC-ST reservation since the decision.