The decision is on expected lines, as the Modi government is facing ire on the creamy layer issue from allies and from within the party. NDA coalition partner and LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan had earlier announced that he will file a review petition against the ruling in the SC.Though the BJP has yet to pronounce its stand on the issue, the thinking within the government is that the implementation of the creamy layer will further alienate the backward community from the BJP. In the 2024 LS polls, the BJP suffered major losses, especially in Uttar Pradesh, after the backward community and Dalits voted against it.On Friday, a delegation of BJP MPs belonging to SC/ST communities met PM Modi and submitted a memorandum on the issue. After meeting the PM, BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste posted on social media that PM Modi assured that he would not implement the creamy layer proposal.”During our meeting with PM Modi, we discussed the personal opinion expressed by Supreme Court Judges regarding SC/ST reservation, which proposes to identify the creamy layer of the SC/ST community and exclude them from the benefits of reservation,” Kulaste wrote on X.”We requested the Prime Minister not to implement this proposal. During the meeting, we also submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister in this regard. The PM agreed with our views and expressed his commitment not to implement it,” he added.Echoing similar views, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told Lok Sabha on Friday that the reference to the creamy layer in the sub-classification of SC/STs is an observation by an SC judge and not a part of the decision. “The member should not attempt to mislead society,” Meghwal said while replying to Shiv Sena-UBT member Bhausaheb Wakchaure’s question on the same.Earlier this month, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgement that state governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.Justice BR Gavai had said that states must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) and deny them the benefit of reservation. He penned a separate but concurring judgement in which the top court, by a majority verdict, said the states are empowered to make sub-classifications of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for granting quotas within the reserved category to uplift those who belong to the more underprivileged castes.Justice Bela Trivedi was the lone dissenting judge in the case. She dissented from the majority and ruled that such sub-classification is not permissible.
Source link
