Don't 'mislead' society on creamy layer for Scheduled Castes: Law Minister tells opposition

New Delhi: Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Friday asked the opposition not to "mislead" the society on the "observations" of a Supreme Court judge on carving out a creamy layer for exclusion from SC/ST reservations.

Meghwal was replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha when Shiv Sena-UBT member Bhausaheb Wakchaure raised the issue of the Supreme Court judgment on creamy layer in SC/ST quotas.

"The reference to creamy layer in the sub-categorisation of SC/STs is an observation by a Supreme Court judge and not a part of the decision. The member should not make an attempt to mislead the society," Meghwal said.

He said the Constitution does not have any provision for reservation for SC/STs in the Rajya Sabha or Legislative Councils in various states.

"There is no proposal under consideration to provide reservation to the SCs/STs in Rajya Sabha," Meghwal said.

The Law Minister said under article 332 of the Constitution, seats are reserved for the SCs and STs in the State Legislative Assemblies, in proportion to their population.

Earlier this month, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgment that State governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.

Supreme Court judge Justice B R 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, Justice Gavai penned a separate but concurring judgement in which the top court by a majority verdict said 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.