RESERVATION ROW: Thousands of students protested OBC quota in institutes of higher learning.
New Delhi: The Centre has rejected the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to exclude the Creamy Layer from the purview of the 27 per cent OBC quota in Government-aided institutions of higher learning.
On Thursday night, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for amendments to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006 introduced in Lok Sabha on August 25, this year.
The said Bill was referred to the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development for examination and report.
The Committee has since presented its 186th report to Rajya Sabha on December 1, 2006 and tabled the report in Lok Sabha on the same day.
The amendments prescribe 27 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in Central educational institutions.
The amendment Bill would be introduced in the Lok Sabha with such certain consequential changes on the basis of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to the extent acceptable to the Government.
The Bill is expected to be passed by Parliament in the ongoing Winter Session.
Interestingly, in including the Creamy Layer in the purview of the quota, the Government seemed to have gone against the order of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, which had ruled in October that the Creamy Layer must be excluded from quota.
The issue had come up in the court in the middle of the row on increasing reservation in educational institutes.
A Parliamentary panel of HRD had earlier recommended preference to non-Creamy Layer candidates in 27 per cent reservation for OBC in government-aided educational institutions.
Only if the reserved seats remain vacant should the OBC Creamy Layer then be accommodated in order of merit, the Standing Committee on HRD, said.
In a report on the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Bill, 2006, tabled in Parliament, the committee apparently agreed with Veerappa Moily on the Creamy Layer issue.
Moily, who headed the Oversight Committee to prepare a roadmap to implement quota, told the committee that inclusion of Creamy Layer would result in reserved seats being pre-empted by OBCs from higher income group.
“Almost all rural and urban OBCs from northern, central and eastern regions would be deprived,” the report said. And, apparent beneficiaries would be OBCs from southern states who have been empowered due to consistent reservation policy.
The Parliamentary panel also quoted a case study of Karnataka, done for the Oversight Committee, to suggest that OBC quotas have been utilised without any compromise with academic excellence where Creamy Layer had been excluded.
The issue of exclusion of Creamy Layer had divided the ruling UPA.
While Left parties favoured exclusion of Creamy Layer, UPA allies like DMK and PMK strongly opposed any such move. Finally, the Government decided to extend OBC reservation to all, including Creamy Layer, through this Bill.
The Tribal Bill too is expected to be passed in this session of Parliament.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT CREAMY LAYER?
- To maintain the structure of equality within the backward classes, that is, between OBCs on one hand and SCs and STs on the other, the concept of creamy layer, which is a qualitative exclusion, has to be retained as constitutional requirement.
- The concept of creamy layer is based on the means test to strike a balance with the secular notion."
- The current creamy layer includes children of Constitutional functionaries like President, Vice President, Judges of SC and HCs, Chairman and members of UPSC and state PSCs, CEC and CAG.
- It also includes children of Class I and Class II officers in Central and State PSUs, Colonel and above in Army and equivalent posts in Navy, Air Force and Paramilitary.
- The third category comprises children of doctors, lawyers, CAs, financial or management consultant, engineers, dental surgeon, computer specialists, film professionals and film artists, authors, playwrights, media professionals and property owners beyond a certain limit.
- Those with an income of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum are included in the creamy layer.
Source: IBN