'If both parents are IAS officers, why should children have reservations?': SC questions quota for kids from well-off backward class families

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed concern over the continued extension of reservation benefits to children of economically and educationally advanced families from backward classes, noting that education and economic progress naturally lead to social mobility.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by Raghavendra Fakeerappa Chandranavar, who challenged a Karnataka High Court order upholding his exclusion from reservation benefits.

“If both parents are IAS officers, why should they have reservations? With educational and economic empowerment, there is social mobility. So then again, to seek reservation for the children, we will never get out of it,” the bench remarked while issuing notice in the case.

The petitioner, belonging to the Kuruba community classified under Category II(A) of Karnataka’s backward classes list, was selected for the post of Assistant Engineer (Electrical) in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited under the reserved category.

However, the District Caste and Income Verification Committee denied him a caste validity certificate, classifying him under the ‘creamy layer’.

The committee noted that both his parents were state government employees with a combined annual income of around Rs 19.48 lakh, which exceeded the prescribed creamy layer threshold of Rs 8 lakh.

The court observed that several government orders already exclude affluent sections from reservation benefits, but these are frequently challenged.

“For the Economically Weaker Section and Disadvantaged Group, there is no social backwardness but only economic backwardness. There has to be some balance. Socially and educationally backward, yes, but once the parents have attained a level because of taking advantage of reservation…,” the bench said.

The court underscored that children of parents in good jobs with handsome incomes should ideally move out of the reservation ambit.

In an earlier order in January 2025, the Supreme Court had declined to entertain a plea seeking exclusion of children of IAS and IPS officers from SC/ST quotas in Madhya Pradesh, stating that the issue required legislative intervention.

It had said the reference to the exclusion of the creamy layer from SC and ST quotas in a seven-judge Constitution bench's August 2024 ruling in the State of Punjab versus Davinder Singh case was only a view and the legislature has to decide in this regard.