Supreme Court refuses to direct exclusion of IAS, IPS officers' children from SC/ST reservation in MP

The Supreme Court recently declined to issue directions to exclude children of IAS, IPS, and similar officers from the ambit of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) in Madhya Pradesh..A Bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih observed that a decision regarding whether individuals belonging to creamy layer, who have already availed quota benefits, should be excluded from reservation will fall within the purview of the executive and the legislature.“It is for executive and for the legislature as to whether to provide reservation or not. It is an enabling provision. We have given our view: we have taken into consideration the past seventy-five years, such of the persons who have already availed benefit and are in position to compete with others should be excluded from reservation. But it is call to be taken by the executive and legislature,” the Court noted..The petitioner urged the Court to direct the state to frame a policy on reservation, highlighting that recruitments were ongoing across 21 departments without the exclusion of the creamy layer. The counsel argued that the High Court had shown reluctance to entertain the petition. He sought intervention based on the precedent set by Vishaka and others v. State of Rajasthan wherein courts framed interim policies in the absence of State action.However, the Supreme Court reiterated that reservation is an enabling provision and it is the prerogative of the legislature and executive to decide on such policies. The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that a Constitution Bench had directed States to formulate the policy and expressed concern that almost six months had passed without any action.But the Bench refused to pass any directions."We are not inclined," it said..The petitioner then sought permission withdraw the plea with liberty to file a representation before the appropriate authority. The Court granted the request. “Allowed with liberty to take such steps as are permissible in law," it directed. .In August 2024, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the power of states to sub-classify reserved category groups, such as SC/STs, into different groups based on their inter se backwardness for extending the benefits of reservation.In that judgment, four out of the seven judges called for identification of creamy layer among SC/STs to take them out of the fold of affirmative action (reservation).Currently the principle of creamy layer applies only to Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) and not SC/STs.However, four judges on that Bench also called for creamy layer identification among SC/STs so that benefits of reservation reach only the backward persons among such communities.