There is no provision in the Constitution for a creamy layer in the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.

Quotas for the two communities will be implemented as per the Constitution drafted by BR Ambedkar, he said at a Cabinet briefing.

Vaishnaw’s remarks imply that the government will not act on the Supreme Court’s suggestion that the principle of the “creamy layer” be extended to reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The creamy layer seeks to exclude the wealthier and more advanced members within a group from the benefits of affirmative action.

On August 1, a seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud in a 6:1 majority verdict overruled the court’s 2004 judgement, which held that Scheduled Castes formed a homogenous group and hence could not be subdivided into categories.

Four of the seven judges also called for identifying the creamy layer among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories so that they could be removed from the reservation matrix. The application of the creamy layer, however, was not one of the questions before the bench, and the suggestions of the four judges lack legal enforceability.

“The Supreme Court has given certain suggestions on the reservation for SCs and STs,” Vaishnaw said during Friday’s press conference. “Today, the Cabinet carried out an elaborate discussion on this issue. The well-thought-through decision of the Cabinet is that the National Democratic Alliance government is committed to the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

Earlier on Friday, a group of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed their concerns about the Supreme Court’s observations. One of them, Bulandshahr MP Bhola Singh, said Modi assured them that the government “would not take any steps and reiterated that it stands for the welfare of SC and ST communities”, The Indian Express reported.

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