The Centre on Monday sought “clarifications and appropriate directions” from the Supreme Court on the applicability of its March 11 judgment ordering the consideration of claims by nearly 100 OBC candidates who were selected in Civil Services Examinations (CSE) since 2016 but rejected by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the basis of creamy layer criteria.The petition, filed by the DoPT, comes even as sources told The Indian Express that the government had been preparing to implement the verdict, with verification of documents of affected candidates already completed.The Centre’s clarification plea comes just ahead of the start of the Foundation Course for the CSE-2025 batch, tentatively scheduled to begin at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie this week.Read | SC verdict on parental income as OBC creamy layer criterion: What has court said, what changesIn its appeal, the government said that the March 11 judgment “altering settled position (on creamy layer) was rendered five days after the final result of CSE-2025 already stood declared”. It cautioned that any delay in finalisation of the category-wise merit and allocation list would have a cascading effect on the training schedule, batch strength, logistics arrangements, the training calendar fixed by the respective academies, cadre allocation for IAS and IPS officers, and the seniority and pay fixation of the incoming batch vis-à-vis subsequent recruitment cycles.The government stated that “a mechanical or unqualified application of the ratio of the said judgement, with retrospective effect, to the already-concluded selection process of CSE-2025, would result in a peculiar and acute anomaly amounting to discrimination inter se candidates of the very examination cycle sought to be benefited”.The Centre emphasised that its appeal for clarification and appropriate directions was concerned solely with CSE-2025, whose selection process “stood substantially concluded prior to the pronouncement of the judgment and is presently at the terminal stage of service allocation”. However, in its appeal, the DoPT does not mention the applicability of the Supreme Court judgment from next batches.ExplainedGovernment says will have cascading effectThe Centre has argued that SC’s March 11 judgment came five days after the final result of CSE-2025 was declared. Delay in finalisation of the category-wise merit and allocation list would have a cascading effect — from training to seniority and pay fixation of the incoming batch.The government move comes ahead of crucial Assembly elections, with anti-reservation protests underway at some places.Story continues below this adThe matter traces its origins to a DoPT letter of October 14, 2004, clarifying an Official Memorandum (OM) of September 1993 on the creamy layer criterion for OBCs. The 1993 OM had excluded income from salary and agricultural sources from the income/wealth test used to determine creamy layer status. However, the 2004 clarification said the salary income of employees in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the private sector would be a criterion.As per the petitioners, this was “hostile discrimination” between the wards of government servants and those of PSUs or private sector employees.The 2004 clarification was not implemented effectively until 2014, while the UPA government was in power and was making efforts to consolidate OBC support. It began to be applied rigorously from the CSE-2015 (corresponding to the 2016 batch).Since then, around 100 candidates who possessed caste certificates issued by competent authorities and cleared the CSE have found their OBC claims rejected by the DoPT on the creamy layer ground. Most of them are parties in different petitions before the Supreme Court and various High Courts.Story continues below this adInterestingly, some of these candidates successfully claimed OBC status in other examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission or state bodies, but were rejected in the CSE process.On March 11 this year, hearing an appeal by one of the candidates, Rohith Nathan, a Division Bench of Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan ruled that income cannot be the sole criterion for determining the creamy layer among OBCs. The Court said: “The object of excluding the creamy layer is… not to create artificial distinctions between equally placed members of the same social class… unequal treatment of similarly placed OBC candidates would not only be legally erroneous but constitutionally impermissible.”It further held that treating the children of those employed in PSUs or private employment as excluded from reservation benefits solely on the basis of salary income, without reference to the nature of their posts (Group A, B, C or D), “would certainly lead to hostile discrimination between parties who are similarly placed and would amount to equals being treated unequally, thereby attracting the rigour of the equality doctrine under Articles 14, 15 and 16”.The Supreme Court gave six months time for the implementation of its judgment, which is set to get over on September 11.Story continues below this adDoPT sources told The Indian Express that the government had been all set to implement the Supreme Court verdict and that verification of documents of all affected candidates had already been completed.If the March 11 judgment is implemented in full, its benefits would extend not only to candidates appearing in future examinations but also to those affected in earlier cycles. The implementation could hence lead to revised ranks for some.In its application, the Centre has urged the Supreme Court to also “clarify / direct that the judgment shall not be applied retrospectively so as to unsettle completed admissions in higher educational institutions, completed academic sessions, degrees already conferred, or settled rights of students”.