OBC reservation
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Executive"
Meaning
OBC reservation sets aside 27% of central government jobs and seats in central educational institutions for Other Backward Classes. OBCs are communities, other than SCs and STs, that are socially and educationally backward. The quota comes from the Mandal Commission report. In jobs it rests on Article 16(4), and in education on Article 15(5). The creamy layer, meaning better-off OBC families, is excluded. Its income limit has been ₹8 lakh since 2017.
Example
The OM of 13 August 1990 brought in the Mandal quota. In Indra Sawhney (16 November 1992), the Supreme Court upheld 27% for jobs but required the creamy layer to be excluded. The quota was applied from 1993. In education, Ashoka Kumar Thakur (2008) upheld 27% OBC reservation in central institutions.
Don't confuse with
- EWS reservation: this gives up to 10% to poor people who are not covered by SC, ST or OBC quotas. It is based only on income, not on social backwardness.
Related concepts
- Backward Classes Commission (Article 340)
- Kalelkar Commission
- Other Backward Classes
- Ashoka Kumar Thakur case
- Creamy layer
- 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act 2018
- 105th Constitutional Amendment Act 2021
- Rohini Commission