Govt not to recognise creamy layer in SC/ST

New Delhi, Nov 21 (UNI) The Centre today asserted that it did not recognise any creamy layer among SC/ST and said that the Supreme Court's stand on creamy layer in SC/ST was not part of the judgement but only its view.

''The government's stand is that creamy layer issue is not valid for SC/ST as their reservation has been given on the basis of social backwardness and not economic one,'' Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Pachauri said at a press conference here.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said that by taking this stand, the government was not heading for a confrontation with the judiciary. ''The executive, judiciary and legislature all have definite role under the Constitution which would be totally upheld,'' he noted.

Mr Pachauri pointed out that Attorney General Milon Kumar Banerjee, who is the highest arbitrator, has opined that the apex court's recent observations on creamy layer was not part of the judgement and just an opinion. Moreover, the court has accepted the legal validity of the Constitution Amendments 77, 81, 82 and 85 regarding reservations, he said.

Besides, a nine judge bench of the Supreme Court in Indira Goswami case earlier had given a judgement totally different than the recent five judge bench's observation and as per the Supreme Court's own ruling a smaller bench couldnot over ride the decision of bigger bench, he said.

UNI AJ VD DB2011