SC asks Centre to consider devising safeguards to ensure no misuse of EPFO, ITR data

In a significant move, the Union government has requested the Supreme Court to exempt the 2025 and 2026 Civil Service Examinations (CSE) from the income test decision outlined in the recent March 11 ruling. This request was made through the Department of Personnel and Training, who argued that applying the judgement retrospectively would have a detrimental impact on lakhs of OBC recruitments and admissions already conducted under the previous interpretation of the creamy layer criteria.

The creamy layer, a term used in the context of OBC reservations, refers to the layer of candidates whose parents hold a certain level of income or wealth, thus exempting them from the income ceiling requirement for reservations. The Supreme Court's March judgement had directed the government to create supernumerary posts for OBC candidates who had approached the court and to consider the creamy layer criteria accordingly.

However, the government has expressed concerns that implementing the judgement retrospectively could result in a flood of representations and litigations, affecting over 3.7 lakh OBC recruitments in Central government posts since 2016, as well as causing adverse impacts in the higher education sector.