California sheriff unlawfully seized ballots, state Supreme Court rules

On September 24, 2026, the Supreme Court reserved orders on a plea from the Union government seeking a two-year window to reassess the OBC non-creamy layer policy. The government argued that implementing the March 11, 2026 Supreme Court judgment prospectively would have significant consequences for recruitment, service allocation, cadre allocation, seniority, admissions, and the overall administration of OBC reservation.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati urged the court to give the judgment prospective effect to avoid harsh and unjust consequences for employees and prevent administrative chaos. They emphasized that a retrospective application of the judgment would disproportionately affect ongoing and past recruitment processes.

The Centre also requested time to formulate an appropriate and uniform policy for determining OBC creamy layer status, which could be achieved by creating supernumerary posts. The government's appeal came after the court directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to create such posts within six months to accommodate ineligible OBC candidates.

The Supreme Court had previously found that excluding PSU employees without proper job equivalence created "hostile discrimination" and held that salary income cannot be mechanically used to deny OBC quota to PSU employees' children.