Equivalence of posts
Also called: post equivalence · Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Equivalence of posts means officially deciding which job in a public sector undertaking (PSU, a government-owned company), bank or similar body counts as equal to which government grade. It matters for the OBC creamy layer, the better-off OBC families who are left out of reservation. Under the DoPT scheme of 8 September 1993, creamy layer status depends mainly on the parent's post or rank, not on salary. A parent's post can only be judged this way if it has been matched to a government grade. Where no match exists, officials have fallen back on salary. In March 2026, the Supreme Court held that this unequal treatment is unconstitutional.
Example
In 2017, the Union Cabinet matched posts in central PSUs, banks and insurance bodies to government grades. Board-level and managerial posts were treated as equal to Group A, the top tier of government service, so these families fall in the creamy layer. Posts in universities and private firms were never matched. A 2004 letter let officials judge those families by salary instead. On 11 March 2026, the Supreme Court held that judging these families by salary alone, while judging government employees' children by post, is discrimination.
Don't confuse with
- Income/wealth test: this is the separate ₹8 lakh yearly income limit (set in 2017) in the creamy layer rules. It leaves out salary and farm income. Equivalence of posts is about matching job ranks, not counting income.
Recent developments
- 2025: The Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of OBCs found that some Civil Services qualifiers were refused service allocation. Their parents worked in autonomous bodies (government-funded bodies that run on their own) where no post equivalence had been fixed, so officials counted the parents' pay instead. This shows the equivalence gap now reaches beyond universities and private firms.
- November 2026: The Supreme Court refused to give the government a deadline to finish post equivalence. It said framing this policy is the job of the executive (the government, not the courts). DoPT now carries full responsibility, and every new batch of OBC candidates may face the same salary-versus-post problem until it completes the work.
- November 2026: The Court said its March ruling will apply to pending cases and to CSE 2025 service allocation, but will not reopen completed recruitments or settled seniority. Families from bodies with no equivalence table can therefore get relief only if their case is still open.