Supreme Court reserves orders on Centre’s plea for two-year window to fix OBC creamy layer policy

The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 24, 2026) reserved orders on a Union government plea seeking prospective operation of a March 11, 2026 judgment to re-assess OBC non-creamy layer status as per a 1993 Office Memorandum by excluding parental salary income and agricultural income from the income/wealth test.

A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and R. Mahadevan heard an application filed by the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, which also sought a “reasonable time” of two years to undertake the necessary exercise of establishing equivalence of posts, after consulting stakeholders and formulating an appropriate and uniform policy/mechanism for determination of OBC creamy layer status.

The government said a retrospective implementation of the Supreme Court verdict would have significant consequences for recruitment, service allocation, cadre allocation, seniority, admissions and the administration of OBC reservation generally, affecting lakhs.