OBC creamy layer income-test issue stuck between Ministries, says House panel chief

The issue surrounding the OBC creamy layer exclusion, specifically the income/wealth test and equivalence of posts, appears to be a dispute between two ministries, according to Ganesh Singh, the BJP MP and chief of the House panel on OBC welfare. The Ministry of Personnel, Pensions, and Public Grievances and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment seem to be at odds over the matter, with Singh stating that ideally, the Social Justice Ministry should have formulated the policy based on the Supreme Court's interpretation of the income test in March, and then presented it to the Cabinet.

However, this has not happened yet. The Supreme Court's March 11 judgment ruled that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) was engaging in "hostile discrimination" by applying the income test differently to OBC candidates based on their parents' employment status. The court noted that for OBC candidates whose parents work in jobs equivalent to government posts, income from salaries should not be included in the test, and directed the government to exclude salaries.

The government has six months to implement these directives, but the issue has caused a stir among OBCs after the government sought the Supreme Court's help, citing difficulty in retroactively applying the income test. The committee under Singh's leadership has consistently highlighted the government's incorrect application of the income test to OBC candidates from non-equivalent jobs, primarily by interpreting a 2004 DoPT letter.

Singh criticized the Ministries for passing the responsibility back and forth, and the committee has been pushing for the Social Justice Ministry to establish equivalence between posts. The Centre told the Supreme Court earlier this month that establishing equivalence for all existing State PSUs could take up to two years, and it may take longer for private sector posts.

Despite the Supreme Court's ruling, OBC candidates argue that the government's position on retroactively applying the income test is an evasive tactic, and that the issue of unequal application of the test is only present in the DoPT.