The constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices Arijit Pasayat, A K Mathur, R V Raveendran, and Dalveer Bhandari unanimously opined that the creamy layer would not accrue the benefits to be granted to the OBC in elite educational institutions.

At a submission by Senior Advocate P P Rao, the court said that it was upto the government to find ways to identify the creamy layer among the OBCs.

“The creamy layers become higher castes,” the court observed. “The educated and the rich among the OBC will never allow the poor to prosper,” it said.

Mr Rao said the reservation quotas in the country have been decided on the basis of caste and there is no categorisation. Even successive dispensations have failed to break the barrier of caste in Indian society, the court observed.

The court has been hearing issues pertaining to the constitutional validity of the 93rd Amendment, which is the provision of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006.

It provides for 27 per cent reservation for (OBCs) and the Centre’s power to implement such policies without any basis.