Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has accused the opposition of creating confusion among people over the Supreme Court "observation" on creamy layer among SCs and STs, and asserted that the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar has no provision of a creamy layer.
In an interview to PTI Videos, he said the the BJP-led NDA government will follow Ambedkar's Constitution and will continue the reservation system for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as provided in it.
Meghwal noted that though the opposition is aware that the top court had only made an "observation" on creamy layer, it is trying to create confusion among people.
On Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said that the idea of denying reservation to SCs and STs on account of the creamy layer concept is "condemnable". He also said the government should have brought a legislation in Parliament to nullify the part of the recent Supreme Court judgement that talks about the issue.
Meghwal underlined that the top court has said that if the states want, they can do sub-classification. But SC has not made any decision on creamy layer. It is an observation, he asserted.
"There is a difference between direction and observation," he reminded the opposition.
Earlier this month, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice D Y 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.
Supreme Court judge B R Gavai had said 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.
Justice Gavai 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.
The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, held a detailed discussion on the Supreme Court judgement on the sub-categorisation of reservation for SCs and STs as granted in the Constitution.
"It is the well thought view of the Union Cabinet that the NDA government is firmly committed to the provisions in the Constitution given by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had told reporters.