New Delhi: The Supreme Court under a five-judge Constitution bench will examine whether its 12-year-old verdict that had dealt with the issue of ‘creamy layer’ for reservations to SC and ST categories in government job promotions needs to be re-visited by a seven-judge bench.

The bench comprised of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Kurain Joseph, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra is slated to hear the issue on August 3.

The Apex court had on July 11 declined to pass any interim order against the earlier 2006 verdict and stated that a five-judge bench would first look into whether it needs to be examined by a seven-judge bench or not.

The Supreme Court had stated that it cannot lend an ear over the matter only for the purpose of interim relief as a reference has already been made to the Constitution bench.

The 2006 verdict of M Nagaraj had held that the ‘creamy layer’ concept cannot be applied to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for promotions in government jobs as same as the two earlier verdicts of 1992 Indra Sawhney and others versus Union of India and 2005 E V Chinnaiah versus State of Andhra Pradesh which had all dealt with the creamy layer issue in Other Backward Classes category.

The Centre had already submitted that the matter required consideration on an urgent basis by a seven-judge Constitution bench due to the fact that lakhs of jobs in Railways and the services were stuck due to the confusion over various judicial pronouncements.

As on June 5, which was a major relief to the Centre, the Apex Court had allowed it to go ahead with reservations in promotion for SC/ST employees in accordance with law.

The Apex Court had noticed that the Centre’s submissions about the entire process of promotions had come to

The Apex court had noted that the Centre’s submissions about the entire process of promotions had come to a “standstill” due to the orders given by various high courts and the top court had also ordered “status quo” in a similar matter in 2015. It had said the Centre was not at all “debarred” from making promotions.

The government had claimed that there were separate verdicts by the high courts of Punjab, Delhi, Bombay, and Haryana over the issue of reservation in promotion to SC/ST employees and the apex court had also passed different orders on appeals filed against those judgments.

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