CPI calls SC order on creamy layer 'retrograde'

New Delhi, Oct 20: Terming the Supreme Court ruling excluding the creamy layer among SC and ST from reservation as ''very retrograde'', the CPI today said it was a ''judicial assault'' on the most oppressed sections of the society.

The order will scuttle and eventually dismantle the whole objective of affirmative action and the goal of education and employment for all, the party's central secretariat said.

Calling for intervention by Parliament to reverse the decision, the CPI said how long reservation is to last has to be decided on objective assessment of the results of affirmative action by policy-makers and not ''adjudicated in advance by the Apex Court''.

''It is a judicial assault on the most oppressed sections of our society,'' the party said in a statement.

The ruling also ''encroaches'' upon the powers of legislature, the CPI said adding while upholding constitutional amendments made by Parliament, the Supreme Court has, in fact, redefined the policy of reservation and its implementation.

''In the system of our governance, parliament is supreme. It represents the will of the people. It makes laws and decides policies,'' the central secretariat said reiterating that policy issue is the domain of Parliament and legislature, not of judiciary.

The whole policy of reservation to the members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities and also to the Other Backward Classes has been conceived due to prevalence of untouchability and social discrimination for ages and denial of equal access to education and employment.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutional validity of the 77th, 81st, 82nd and 85th constitutional amendments, said the creamy layer among the reserved categories must be excluded from the benefit of reservation for SC and ST.

UNI

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