The Supreme Court on Friday (November 6, 2026) clarified that the the ratio of the 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, will not apply retrospectively.
As far as the operation of the 2025 batch was concerned, the Court said the service allocation would be in compliance with the March 2026 judgment.
The Court, in its judgment, however, did not agree with the government’s plea for 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 implementation of the judgment currently would not only affect admissions in higher educational institutions and but also candidates involved in ongoing examinations/recruitment processes post the judgment. Ms. Senior advocate P. Wilson, who represents the candidates, objected while contending that the Centre was merely trying to delay, even undo a final judgment of the apex court.
He criticised that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had failed to comply with court directions, Parliamentary Committee recommendations, and its own 1993 rules. Under the 1993 Office Memorandum, the government had devised a policy to exclude salary income and agricultural income of parents to calculate whether an OBC candidate belonged to the OBC creamy layer, that is, a high-income group excluded from reservation.
The government had 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. Bhati said an immediate move would have consequences on OBC reservation policy across the country. She had said the government required sufficient time for determination of a new policy to correct hostile discrimination as pointed out by the court in the judgment. He said the government could very well create supernumerary posts to accommodate eligible OBC candidates.
