NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha belonging to ST/SC communities met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Parliament House on Friday.
The MPs jointly submitted a memorandum regarding the Supreme Court’s observation on the creamy layer for ST/SC and demanded that this decision should not be implemented in our society. According to the MPs, PM Modi assured them that he would look into this matter.
After meeting with PM Modi, BJP MP Prof (Dr) Sikander Kumar said that PM Modi has assured them that the government will work in favour of the MPs.
“A few days ago, SC gave its decision on SC, ST reservation. A delegation comprising around 100 MPs from both Houses met PM Modi today and raised their concerns. The PM heard all MPs and assured us that the government will work in favour of the MPs,” he said.
BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste said that the Prime Minister said that this should not be implemented.
“We told the PM that the SC decision on (identifying ) creamy layer from SCs/STs (and their exclusion from reservation benefits) should not be implemented. The PM also said that this should not be implemented,” he said.
Union Minister Chirag Paswan earlier expressed his disagreement with the Supreme Court’s observation and said that the Lok Jandhakti Party (Ram Vilas) will be filing a review petition against the ruling.
The Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling on August 1, ruled that states have the power to sub-classify SCs and STs and said that the authority concerned, while deciding if the class is adequately represented, must calculate adequacy based on effective and not quantitative representation.
The top court ruled by a majority judgement of 6:1, that sub-classification within the SCs and STs reservation is permissible. As many as six separate opinions were delivered in the case.
The judgement was delivered by the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, which overruled earlier judgement in the EV Chinnaiah matter, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes.
Besides CJI Chandrachud, other judges on the bench were Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath, Bela M Trivedi, Pankaj Mithal, Manoj Misra, and Satish Chandra Sharma.
Justice BR Gavai suggested that the state evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer, even from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to exclude them from the benefit of affirmative action.
Justice Bela M. Trivedi, in a dissenting opinion, said that she disagreed with the majority judgement that sub-classification within the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes is permissible.
