New Delhi, Sep 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the Centre’s plea seeking clarification on the applicability of its March 11 judgement on OBC creamy-layer criteria on candidates of the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2025.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan issued notice on the Centre’s plea and asked the parties to file their responses by September 17.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted that there are serious practical difficulties in implementing the March 11 decision this year as candidates are waiting for their posting and will be affected.
Senior advocates Sanjay Hegde and P Wilson, appearing for some of the original petitioners, said that they have a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the petition filed by the Centre.
Hegde said that the Centre has filed a miscellaneous application for clarification of the verdict and it is not a review petition.
Mehta submitted that there are several judgements in their favour and can address the issue of maintainability, if raised by the opposite parties.
The bench said it is posting the matter for hearing on September 17 and the petitioners can raise the issue of maintainability of the petition on that day.
On August 25, the top court said it would constitute a special bench to hear Centre’s plea for clarification on the applicability of its March 11 judgement.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has sought directions allowing the government to proceed with service allocation of the 958 candidates recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for CSE-2025 on the basis of the OBC creamy-layer determination applied before the March 11 verdict.
The DoPT’s plea arises from the top court’s judgement in a case titled Union of India vs Rohith Nathan, in which the court, on March 11 held, among other things, that the October 14, 2004 clarifying letter could not override the September 8, 1993 office memorandum governing identification of the OBC creamy layer.
The court also held that the salary or income of a parent employed in a public sector undertaking or the private sector could not by itself be treated as the determinative criterion for creamy-layer exclusion.
The status and category of the parent’s post, along with the prescribed income/wealth test, were to be considered in accordance with the 1993 office memorandum.
The government, while stating that it is bound by the top court’s ruling, has said that applying the judgment mechanically to CSE-2025 could result in unequal treatment of candidates who were similarly placed but acted differently based on the legal position prevailing when the examination was conducted.
According to the application, the CSE-2025 notification was issued on January 22, 2025, the preliminary examination was held on May 25, 2025, and the main examination was conducted from August 22 to 31.
The UPSC declared the final result on March 6, 2026, recommending 958 candidates for appointment to the IAS, IFS, IPS and other central services.
The top court delivered the Rohith Nathan judgement just five days later, on March 11.
The Centre has pointed out that candidates whose parents were employed in PSUs or the private sector and whose income exceeded the prescribed ceiling could, under the interpretation prevailing at the time, have considered themselves ineligible for OBC (non-creamy layer) benefits.
Some such candidates, the application says, may consequently have contested CSE-2025 only in the general category, while others may not have applied under the OBC category at all.
They may also have foregone benefits such as the three-year upper age relaxation and additional attempts available to OBC (non-creamy layer) candidates.
The government said that candidates who had applied under the OBC category but were subsequently found ineligible could potentially benefit from a fresh assessment in light of the March 11 judgement.
However, those who never applied as OBC candidates would have no corresponding opportunity to change their category or retrospectively claim age relaxation or additional attempts.
This could result in two groups of candidates who relied on the same prevailing administrative instructions being treated differently, the plea said.
The plea also said that reopening the creamy-layer determination at this stage would require fresh verification of the parental employment and post status of borderline candidates.
It said that extending such an exercise to those who never applied as OBC candidates could effectively require reopening the examination process itself.
The government also highlighted the imminent Foundation Course for the CSE-2025 batch at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, tentatively scheduled for the last week of August.
Any delay in finalising service allocation could have a cascading impact on training schedules, cadre allocation for IAS and IPS officers, seniority and pay fixation, and the training calendars of other central services, the plea said.
Invoking the doctrine of prospective overruling, the Centre has urged the top court to consider the fact that the CSE-2025 selection process had already concluded before the March 11 judgement and that candidates had acted on the legal and administrative position prevailing at the time. PTI MNL MNL RT RT
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