New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked some tough questions to a pro-quota political party which supports ‘creamy layer’ and said the intention of reservation was not to divide society.
"Will the creamy layer ever allow the disadvantageous class to come up? They are enjoying the cream. In short creamy layer is like a higher caste who will not allow the really backward to come up," said a five-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, for providing reservations to backward castes without excluding people in the creamy layer (persons or sections excluded from the benefit of reservation because they of their economic advantages).
"This (creamy layer) will lead to a clash in the society. That is not the intent of reservation. This (reservation) is meant to bring up the most disadvantageous," said the Bench, which is examining the validity of the law providing 27 per cent quota to other backward classes (OBCs) in the educational institutions funded by the Centre.
The Bench didn’t agree with the argument that seats reserved for OBCs in educational institutes will stay vacant if the "creamy layer" was excluded from reservation. "Do you have an idea of how many applications reach from backward class? It is much more than the seats for them," the court said.
PMK’s lawyer, Ravivarma Kumar, pleaded before the court that it order the Centre to conduct a census and identify who would benefit from the 27 per cent quota for OBCs.
Kumar claimed the creamy layer cannot be excluded because the basis of reservation is caste which includes people of all economic standing.
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