licobcewa.in

Creamy Layer

Creamy Layer refers to the economically and socially advanced section of the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category. People falling under the Creamy Layer are not eligible for reservation benefits in government jobs, education, and welfare schemes, as they are considered financially and socially well-off. This system ensures that reservation benefits reach the genuinely backward and deserving sections of society.

Ministry's Orders
1.Migrant Rules  Click Here(size : .42MB) 
1.     DOPT OMs & Orders Regarding Reservation for OBCs(size : .07MB)
2. DOPT OMs & Orders Click Here (size : 2.64MB)
3.      Revision of format for OBC Caste Certificate Click Here(size : .37MB)
4.                                           Reservation for candidates from Other Backward Classes – Revision of Income Criteria and determining equivalence of posts in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), Public Sector Banks, Public Financial Institutions, etc. with Posts in Government for establishing Creamy Layer criteria Click Here(size : .58MB) 
5.                          Revision of income criteria to exclude socially advanced persons/sections (Creamy Layer) from the purview of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) Click Here(size : .1MB) 
6.   DOPT OMs & Order(English) Click Here(size : 147.98MB) 
7.  DOPT OMs & Order(Hindi) Click Here(size : 152.26MB)

The orders regarding creamy layer are issued by the Department of Personnel & Training.  The clarifications/queries relating to creamy layer may be addressed to:

Under Secretary (Reservation),
Department of Personnel & Training,
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance & Pensions,
North Block,
New Delhi-110001.

Constitutional Provisions

The Constitution of India guarantees equality, dignity, and non-discrimination to every citizen, irrespective of religion, caste, race, sex, or place of birth. It ensures equal access to public places, equal opportunity in employment, and protection from social discrimination. At the same time, it empowers the State to make special provisions and reservations for socially and educationally backward classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes to promote social justice and inclusive development.

These provisions also enable the formation of commissions to study the conditions of backward classes and recommend measures for their upliftment, ensuring fairness, representation, and balanced progress in society.

15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.—
 
(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to—
  (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or
  (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.
(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.
(4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
(5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.

16. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.—
(1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent Parliament from making any law prescribing, in regard to a class or classes of employment or appointment to an office 1 [under the Government of, or any local or other authority within, a State or Union territory, any requirement as to residence within that State or Union territory] prior to such employment or appointment.
(4) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.
  (4A) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for reservation 3 [in matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, to any class] or classes of posts in the services under the State in favour of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services under the State.
  (4B) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from considering any unfilled vacancies of a year which are reserved for being filled up in that year in accordance with any provision for reservation made under clause (4) or clause (4A) as a separate class of vacancies to be filled up in any succeeding year or years and such class of vacancies shall not be considered together with the vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up for determining the ceiling of fifty per cent. reservation on total number of vacancies of that year.
(5) Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any law which provides that the incumbent of an office in connection with the affairs of any religious or denominational institution or any member of the governing body thereof shall be a person professing a particular religion or belonging to a particular denomination.

Article 340 of the Constitution provides for the appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of and the difficulties faced by the socially and educationally backward classes and to make appropriate recommendations .The article reads as under :-
340. Appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes.—
 (1) The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be made for the purpose by the Union or any State and the conditions subject to which such grants should be made, and the order appointing such Commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.
 (2) A Commission so appointed shall investigate the matters referred to them and present to the President a report setting out the facts as found by them and making such recommendations as they think proper.
 (3) The President shall cause a copy of the report so presented together with a memorandum explaining the action taken thereon to be laid before each House of Parliament.
 

Commission Report

Mandal Commission Report
1.Part 1  (size : 17.32MB)
2. Part 2   (size : 27.58MB)  

The Kalelkar Commission, formally known as the First Backward Classes Commission, was constituted in 1953 by a Presidential Order under the chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar. The Commission was entrusted with the responsibility of examining the social and educational conditions of backward classes in India and formulating recommendations for their systematic upliftment and integration into the national development framework.

In its report submitted in 1955, the Commission identified a large number of backward castes and communities across the country and classified several of them as most backward. It emphasized the structural relationship between social backwardness and the traditional caste hierarchy of Indian society, thereby establishing a socio-structural basis for policy intervention.

Principal Recommendations

  • Systematic caste-wise enumeration of population

  • Recognition of social backwardness based on traditional social hierarchy

  • Special institutional support for women and backward communities

  • Reservation in educational institutions

  • Reservation in government services and local bodies

Although the Commission adopted caste as a principal criterion for determining backwardness, its recommendations were not fully implemented at the time due to administrative, social, and policy considerations. Nevertheless, the Kalelkar Commission represents a foundational milestone in the evolution of India’s reservation policy and social justice framework, and it continues to hold enduring historical and policy significance.