Supreme Court Questions Reservation for Affluent Within Backward Classes

The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the continued grant of reservation benefits to children of economically and educationally advanced families within backward classes, observing that social mobility comes with empowerment and that reservation cannot continue indefinitely for such sections. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing a plea challenging a Karnataka high court judgment that upheld the exclusion of a petitioner from reservation benefits because both his parents are state government employees.

"If both parents are IAS officers, why should they have reservations? With educational and economic empowerment, there is social mobility," the bench observed, according to PTI.

"So then again, to seek reservation for the children, we will never get out of it," the court added while issuing notice in the matter.

The top court further remarked that if parents are employed in good jobs and earn handsome incomes, their children should move out of the reservation system.

The bench noted that several government orders already provide for excluding affluent sections from reservation benefits, though such provisions are now being challenged.

"For the economically weaker section and disadvantaged group, there is no social backwardness but only economic backwardness. There has to be some balance. Socially and educationally backward, yes, but once the parents have attained a level because of taking advantage of reservation," the bench said.

The petitioner had been selected for appointment as an assistant engineer (electrical) in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited under the reserved category. However, PTI reported that the District Caste and Income Verification Committee denied him a caste validity certificate after concluding that he belonged to the creamy layer.

The authorities noted that both of the petitioner’s parents were government employees and that their combined income exceeded the prescribed creamy layer limit of Rs 8 lakh.

Based on this classification, the caste certificate issued to the petitioner certifying him as belonging to the Kuruba community was revoked.

The petitioner challenged this action, but the Karnataka HC upheld the authorities’ decision.

In January 2025, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a separate plea seeking exclusion of children of IAS and IPS officers from Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) reservation benefits in Madhya Pradesh.

At the time, the apex court had said that references to excluding the creamy layer from SC/ST quotas in the seven-judge Constitution bench verdict in the State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh case were merely observations and that any such decision would have to be taken by the legislature PTI reported.