Supreme Court seeks response on creamy layer plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre on a writ petition seeking exclusion of “creamy layer’ from among the SC/STs from the purview of reservation as they are taking away the benefits due to the poor and downtrodden strata of SC/ST.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud issue notice on the petition filed by Rajasthan based Samta Andolan Samiti and nine members of this society who belong to the poor and downtrodden strata of the SC/ST.

The petitioners said they are approaching this court for protection of their fundamental rights as the creamy layer in the SC/ST Communities are siphoning off of the reservation benefits given to them by the State Government as well as the Central Government.

They submitted that it is due to the fact that the uplifted / affluent and advanced sections of the SC/ST communities snatch away the maximum benefit and the 95% members of the SC/ST communities are in disadvantageous position and they are still without any benefit of reservation and the benefit of Government Schemes meant for backward SC and ST communities. Thus, the benefits of reservation policy are not percolating down to the people.