Supreme Court To Examine Centre's Plea On OBC Creamy Layer Criteria For Civil Service Candidates
A bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan posted the matter for September 17.
By Sumit Saxena
Published : September 1, 2026 at 8:53 PM IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a plea by the Centre seeking clarification on the applicability of its March 11 judgment on OBC creamy-layer criteria on candidates of the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2025.
A bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan agreed to examine the Centre's plea and asked the parties to file their responses by September 17. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Centre.
Senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and P Wilson, representing some of the original petitioners, said they have a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the Centre’s plea.
Mehta submitted that there are serious practical difficulties in implementing the March 11 decision this year as candidates are waiting for their posting and will be affected. Hegde argued that the Centre has filed a miscellaneous application for clarification of the verdict. The senior counsel stressed that it is not a review petition.
Mehta submitted that there are several judgments in their favour and they can address the issue of maintainability, if raised by the opposite parties.
The bench said it is scheduling the matter for hearing on September 17. The bench said the petitioners can raise the issue of maintainability of the petition on that day.
Last month, the top court said it would constitute a special bench to hear the Centre’s plea for clarification on the applicability of its March 11 judgment.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has sought directions allowing the government to proceed with service allocation of the 958 candidates recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for CSE-2025 on the basis of the OBC creamy-layer determination applied before the March 11 verdict.
The DoPT’s plea arises from the top court’s judgment in a case titled Union of India vs Rohith Nathan, in which the court, on March 11 held, among other things, that the October 14, 2004, clarifying letter could not override the September 8, 1993, office memorandum governing identification of the OBC creamy layer.
In March, the top court held that determining the "creamy layer" status for reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category cannot rest solely on parental income. It must also take into account the posts and positions held by the parents within their organisations.
The 1993 OM, issued in the wake of the landmark Indira Sawhney judgment, laid down that certain socially advanced sections within the OBC category would be excluded from reservation benefits, primarily on the basis of the posts held by their parents.
The dispute revolved around the September 8, 1993 OM of the Centre, which defined the criteria for identifying the “creamy layer” among OBCs, and the subsequent clarificatory letter dated October 14, 2004.
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