Nov 16, 2025 (Agency): The children of an IAS officer cannot be equated with the offspring of a poor agricultural labourer when it comes to reservations, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai opined on Sunday, affirming that he still supports the exclusion of the creamy layer in reservations for Scheduled Castes.
Addressing a programme titled “India and the Living Indian Constitution at 75 Years”, CJI Gavai observed that what is applicable to the Other Backward Classes should also be made applicable to the Scheduled Castes, though his judgment has been widely criticised on that issue.
Gavai said, “I also went further and took a view that the concept of creamy layer, as has been found in the judgment of Indra Sawhney (vs Union of India & Others).” He added, “But I still hold that judges are not supposed to normally justify their judgments, and I still have about a week to go before retirement.”
The CJI said that over the years, equality and women empowerment have been gaining momentum in the country, and the discrimination that was meted out to them has been strongly criticised. He noted that before concluding his journey as Chief Justice in a couple of days, the last function he attended happened to be at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, while the first one after becoming CJI was at his native place Amravati in Maharashtra.
Justice Gavai had observed in 2024 that states must evolve a policy for identifying the creamy layer even among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) and deny them the benefit of reservation.
Asserting that the Indian Constitution is not “static,” Justice Gavai said Dr. BR Ambedkar always considered it to be an evolving, organic, and state-of-the-art living document, as Article 368 provides for the amendment of the Constitution.
