Intervene to ensure fair application of OBC income test in civil services exams: Manickam Tagore to PM

B. Manickam Tagore.
| Photo Credit: G. Moorthy

Congress leader Manickam Tagore has recently written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to remove discrimination in how the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) applies the income test for determining the Non-Creamy Layer (NCL) status of selected OBC candidates whose parents work in public sector bodies.

“These candidates are currently facing significant obstacles related to the verification of their OBC Non-Creamy Layer status, which is preventing them from joining their designated services,” Mr. Tagore wrote to Mr. Modi, who heads the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, under which the UPSC operates.

“The current situation has caused undue distress to OBC candidates who have earned their positions through merit, but are being unjustly denied due to procedural ambiguities,” the Congress MP said.

Mr. Tagore has sought a “clear and inclusive policy” for determining the NCL status of OBC candidates, uniform implementation of the income test for children of all public sector bodies, and transparency in the verification process.

He said that the core issue in these cases was the UPSC’s refusal to accept the NCL certificates issued by State government authorities that confirm the Class III/IV status of OBC candidates’ parents who work in Central and State public sector undertakings and public sector banks.

Further, he added that the income test was being applied unevenly for children of those working in Central/State governments and children of those working in PSUs, PSBs, and various other public sector bodies – an issue that is being litigated in the Supreme Court.

“The prevailing interpretation (of income test) seems to favour those employed in Central and State government roles, thereby disadvantaging candidates from other sectors,” Mr. Tagore said.

When the OBC quota was introduced in 1993, a guiding charter was created to exclude OBC candidates whose families had accumulated certain social and economic privileges over the years, known as the creamy layer. This would then allow reservation benefits only for those declared as ‘non-creamy layer’ or NCL candidates, based on several criteria, including a crucial income or wealth test. 

The Department of Personnel and Training’s (DoPT) 1993 charter had declared some OBC families ineligible on the basis of their occupations. Thus, children of people in constitutional posts, senior Central and State government employees, members of the armed forces, and property owners supposedly could not avail of the OBC quota for the civil services. But exceptions were carved out of these exclusions: for instance, children of MPs and MLAs; government officials who have been promoted, not hired into senior positions; and owners of unirrigated agricultural land, among others are all eligible for OBC quotas, subject to a parental annual income limit of ₹8 lakh.

However, only the exceptional cases mentioned above are allowed to exclude their parents’ salaries and agricultural income from the prescribed limit. For other OBC candidates whose parents are salaried professionals, business owners, farmers, or not part of the initial exclusions, the ₹8 lakh limit includes parental salaries. The DoPT had explained these dual standards in the application of the OBC income test in an October 2020 affidavit filed in the Supreme Court.

In the affidavit, the DoPT had added that children of PSU, PSB employees would fall under the category where parental salaries are included to determine the annual family income.