Ex-CJI Gavai Says He Faced Criticism for Backing Creamy Layer for SC Quota

Gavai, who recently retired as CJI, was delivering a lecture on “Role of Affirmative Action in Promoting Equality of Opportunities” at Mumbai University on Saturday.

Commemorating Ambedkar on his death anniversary, Gavai said the iconic leader was not only the architect of the Indian Constitution but also the affirmative action enshrined here.

“Babasaheb was of the view so far that in terms of affirmative action, it is like providing a bike to those who are left behind…. say someone is at the tenth km and someone is at zero, he (the second) should be provided with a bike so that he reaches the tenth km faster. From there he joins the person who is already there and walks with him. Did he (Ambedkar) think that that person should leave the bike and not go forward and so he asked other people to continue being there at zero km?” he asked.

The former CJI added: “In my view, this was not the vision of social and economic justice envisaged by Babasaheb Ambedkar. He wanted to bring social and economic justice in the real sense, not in the formal sense.”

Gavai said that he had articulated the creamy layer principle in Indra Sawhney and Others v. Union of India and in another case he too had argued that the creamy layer should also be applied to the Scheduled Castes.

This principle demands that those who are economically and socially sufficiently developed should not benefit from positive discrimination, even if they are members of the underdeveloped community to which it is intended.

Gavai, who said he was “widely criticized” by people in his community for this decision, said he was accused of advocating the exclusion of those who took advantage of this reservation to become a Supreme Court judge and then fell into the creamy layer.

But Gavai said these people do not even know that there is no reservation for the constitutional office of Supreme Court or High Court judge.

He asked whether applying the same criterion to the son of a chief justice or chief secretary in India and the son of a gram panchayat-educated worker could satisfy the test of equality enshrined in the Constitution.

But Gavai emphasized that “affirmative action has undoubtedly played a positive role” over the last 75 years.

“I have traveled around the country, I have traveled around the world, I have seen many people belonging to Scheduled Caste becoming principal secretaries or director generals of police or ambassadors and high commissioners,” he said.

Gavai said Maharashtra was the land of social reformers and “the region can truly be described as the birthplace of the idea of ​​modern India”.

“We are all aware of the pioneering work of Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule towards eliminating inequalities in society,” he said.

He noted that it was the Phule couple who opened the door to education for women at a time when they were among the most oppressed segments of society.