New Delhi, May 16
Ahead of five state elections and Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Cabinet today took a significant political decision to revise the income ceiling for OBC creamy layer with a view to extending the benefit of 27 per cent OBC quota to many more in the community than are presently covered.

The annual income ceiling for creamy layer (socially advanced groups) within the OBCs will now be Rs 6 lakh instead of Rs 4.5 lakh. This is the fourth revision in the creamy layer income criteria ever since the concept was introduced in 1993 when the Government adopted the Mandal Commission report to grant 27 per cent quota to OBCs in government jobs and central educational institutions.

The original income ceiling was Rs 1 lakh annually. It was raised in 2004 to Rs 2.5 lakh and against to Rs 4.5 lakh in 2008 when Meira Kumar was Social Justice Minister.

“This is a huge step forward towards empowering the OBCs who felt left out due to a low income ceiling. We had initiated the exercise of revision in July 2011. This decision will help the cause of inclusive growth. In the revision we have kept the increase in consumer price index in mind,” Social Justice Minister Kumari Selja told TNS today.

The concept of creamy layer was introduced by the Supreme Court in the famous Indra Sahney judgment in 1992 wherein a majority bench had upheld 27 pc reservations for OBCs in government jobs and central educational institutions subject to the exclusion of socially advanced groups within the OBCs.

These advanced groups were termed as “creamy layer” and the SC asked the Government to find a criterion to define the creamy layer. A committee was set up in July 1993 and it zeroed in on the income/wealth criteria to define this layer.

The Cabinet’s decision today comes in the wake of several demands from OBC groups which asked for revision of the creamy layer saying Rs 4.5 lakh was too little and left out huge chunks of the community who deserved quota benefits.

Importantly, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) which has the constitutional mandate to prepare the OBC list had in its recommendations to the Government last year said Rs 12 lakh should be the income ceiling for OBC creamy layer in metros and Rs 9 lakh should be the ceiling in non metros.

The recommendations were taken to the Union Cabinet on June 14 last year and the Cabinet decided to refer the matter to a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The GOM comprised the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, the then Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik, the then Law Minister Salman Khurshid and V Narayanasamy, Minister in charge of Personnel.

In its last meeting on March 15 this year the GoM decided to reject the NCBC recommendations and kept the creamy layer income ceiling at Rs 6 lakh to extend the quota benefit to deserving OBCs and maintain a uniform standard for both metros and non metros to ensure the policy is easy to administer